


Semper Fi

by TheGeekinPink90



Category: Glee
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-25
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2018-01-26 10:57:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 181,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1685819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGeekinPink90/pseuds/TheGeekinPink90
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU: Special Agent Quinn Fabray and the rest of her team struggle with the loss of one of their own, as her killer runs free and threatens their lives. When CIA/Mossad liaison, Rachel Berry, is brought in to convince Quinn not to kill her agent, Quinn begins to wonder whether it is out of professionalism or something more. Will Quinn and the team catch their fallen agent's killer before he takes another life? And will Rachel be the key to finding him?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Twilight

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! This is my first time posting here, but this story is also on fanfiction.net. Happy reading and hope you enjoy this.

The man in black stood patiently in the enclosed space of the old industrial elevator and listened as it slowly creaked on to the top. His free hand lay on top of the hand that held the handle to his long, black, and slightly heavy duffel bag. The look in his crystal light blue eyes were cold and void of any emotion,his lips sat in a straight line as he prepared for the job he was about to complete. He did not register the sounds of the gunshots being fired outside, probably from the shoot out currently occurring between his men and the MCRT agents below. He had a feeling that they were keeping the agents on their toes with the drone, giving him just enough time to set up and prepare the final part of his plan. Whether any of them were captured or killed in the process, was none of his concern and frankly he thought they were on their own. They had served their purpose and he had no use for them anymore. They would die as martyrs for the cause, at least his cause anyway. Everything was panning out better than he imagined and soon his mission would be complete.

 

As he reached the final stretch of his destination, he ran the fingers of his free hand through his short brown hair, brushing it forward to keep it uniformed and in place. He anxiously looks down at the duffel bag, before staring straight ahead once more. He had to clear his mind of any and all distractions that plagued him and would keep him from completing this assignment. He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes.His mind wanders first to the two year old little girl who was the spitting image of her mother. She even had her mother's expressive chocolate brown eyes.The only thing that she got from him was his nose. She was back in New York with his ex and he was sure that she would never see him again. If her mother had her way, he had no doubt that she had already branded him as the devil reincarnated now and even more so when all is said and done today.His ex had ended things for good six months ago and at the time, he thought she was just being overdramatic. They would break up like this all the time and he was sure that they would make up once again, once the CIA operative cooled off. He was surprised and shocked to find her gun aimed at his head, as soon as he walked in the door, with her threatening to kill him if he ever came back.That was the last time he saw his family and the last time he had any crazy aspirations for a normal life.

 

He thought about his father, who he held responsible for the man he is today and hated him for it. Brody felt like he had finally given his father what he's wanted for the last couple of years, a reason to disown him as a son.He was sure his father knew that he became a rogue agent and sold Mossad and the US to the very terrorist agencies they have spent decades fighting against. And for the first time in his life, he didn't care. In his thirty-two years of life, he had been pushed into this role as being a double agent in Hamas for Mossad. His father had worked for them for years before becoming assistant director of Mossad and he expected his son to follow in his foot steps. He played his role as the dutiful son following his father's path for a while,but quickly grew bored of it.And the very same organizations that he was supposed to be spying on for Mossad,compensated him much better for his information than his father did. For the last couple of years, their relationship had been strained at best. The last time he talked to him, he told the assistant director how much he despised and how he couldn't wait for the day that everyone saw him as the monster he truly was for what he did to his mother.

 

 

And then there was the person, whom he would always seemed to plague his thoughts. The mother of his child, the only woman that he had ever came close to loving. She loved him, at one time, in spite of his flaws and forgave him for his thoughtless and sometimes reckless behavior.She was the woman he screwed over the moment he went through her things, the night he after he proposed six months ago, and found the classified documents for the drones that her agency had recovered at the time and sent to his contacts. He'll never forget the last time he saw her. The agent remembered the utter look of betrayal and devastation in her eyes as she presented him with evidence that he was betraying Mossad and the CIA by selling information to Hamas. If he was capable of feeling anything, he would have taken the service weapon she had pointed into his face as she told him to never come back and shot himself with it out of guilt. But because of who he was and how he was trained, he felt nothing at all. He figured that she expected him to feel something that would justify her giving him a second chance. But there was nothing there.

 

As he exhales out, his mind becomes clear and focuses in on one thing and one thing only, breaking Special Agent Quinn Fabray.

 

* * *

 

 

He had done his research on the elusive agent and was able to get a good read on her from the two encounters that he had shared with the woman. The last of said encounters involved a bullet being lodged into his arm, which Quinn excused as helping him out on his assignment. She had been at NCIS for about ten years and served as a Marine sharp shooter for her six year tenure with the core. At twenty-four, she was recruited to NCIS by the now retired special agent William Schuester. She had worked under him for five years before his retirement and Director Terri Schuester had given the young agent a team of her own.

 

Brody didn't find out much about agent Fabray's family, that he could use against her.She had a mother,who died during her first year at NCIS and her father was living somewhere in a small town in Ohio called Lima.And as far as he knew, they weren't close, something else the two had in common. Outside of her many disciplinary citations during her time at McKinley High School, nothing else was known about the agent other than that. At least nothing he could use for what he needed to do.And from the brief exchanges he shared with the agent, he knew that she was smarter than she appeared. She was loyal to the ones she loved to a fault and would do anything to protect them. He knew that if anything ever happened to his team, she would stop at nothing to find him. For all intense and purposes, if he and Special Agent Fabray were not fighting on different sides, he would have extended an offer to her to work for him. She is a worthy advisory and her impressive skills would have been a fine asset to his operation.But unfortunately for her, his unfortunate competitive streak would not allow him to let her have the advantage over him in the little game they were playing with one another.

 

The dinging of the elevator broke Brody out of his thoughts as he finally arrived to his destination. He walks out of the elevator and enters a small room littered with stacks and stacks of boxes. The building itself once served as an office that was abandoned years ago. In front of the window stood a lone chair facing forward. Brody maneuvered through the clutter carefully before finally reaching the chair. He kneeled down beside it and opened the duffel bag, pulling out a tripod that was folded into itself. He takes the tripod out and sets it up at an angle out the window, one that pointed to the roof directly across from this building. The next thing that he takes out is a short, black rifle, a Brava fifty-one, and opens it up and loads it before setting it on the stand. He looks out of the scope to get it into the angle he needs it to be in. When he is satisfied with his work, he pulls the chair up to the window and crouches back down into position looking into the scope and waiting for his intended target.

 

He points the gun down below to the streets and he sees a tall, lanky blond haired man in a black cap with the white lettering NCIS stitched in the front. He had lips that were far too big for his face and he was staring hard at whatever he typing into his laptop.If he did not know that Agent Fabray's only other sibling was a older sister who lived out in California, he would have assumed that the boy was her younger brother. Briefly recalling his research, he was able to figure out that it was Agent Samuel Evans, the computer specialist and new probationary agent. He had only been there for a few months and was apparently a transfer from NCIS' Norfolk office. Brody watched carefully as the boy ran away from the laptop and take shelter behind a black Acura from the raining barge of bullets. Agent Evan's features relaxed as he assumed that he was safe from what was occurring. But unfortunately for him, he was at a good, but not perfect angle for Brody to get a straight shot off. The bullet would go directly through the back of his head and exit clean through his forehead if all went to plan. So he puts a little pressure on the trigger, preparing to let it go.

 

But at the last moment, he decides against it. Killing Agent Evans would be too simple for Brody. He had a feeling Agent Fabray would not take his death as hard as she would take a more veteran member of her team. He was just a probationary agent after all and sometimes, things like this happen. And there was nothing more that they could have done for him. Or at least that is the way he thinks Agent Fabray would try to rationalize it. That was just not going to work for Brody. No, he wanted a death that would haunt Agent Fabray for the rest of her life. One that would stay with her wherever she went . One that she would not be able to just rationalize and get over. No, he wanted her to feel the kind of pain that he had been forced to feel his entire life by all the women in his life and his father that he had never been able to recover from. He wanted to send her over the edge, to be damaged and broken beyond repair, just like he was. As he pointed the gun toward the neighboring rooftop and saw Agent McKenzie go down, taking a bullet for Agent Fabray, he knew who his kill would be.

 

Three agents burst through the door with their semi automatic rifles pointed in the direction that they were facing. Agent Fabray's short, dirty blonde hair that reached just below her shoulder, flew all over into her face. Her rifle pointed straight ahead as she looked around the area. They had been surrounded and she knew that Brody's men could be hiding anywhere,so they had to stay on their toes.

 

She had told Santana to cover Sam while he figured out a way to deactivate the drone while she, Puck and Dani went to find Brody and the rest of his men. She had been waiting for the Mossad agent to screw up, so that she could personally escort the smug son of a bitch to Gitmo. For weeks, she had kept a close eye on him and which seemed to finally paid off. Before they got to the roof, she and her team had managed to take out three of his six cronies on their way to the rooftop, where she expected him to be.She wasn't as concerned with catching Brody's men. Her main objective was to disarm the drone that Brody had set up and stop it from crashing into a naval ship that was set to dock.And for someone that enjoyed chaos as much as Brody seemed to, she was surprised that he wasn't here firing off a few rounds of his own.

 

As the Agents get onto the rooftop, they see a man in an orange vest with a black brief case, apparently controlling the drone's flight. Inside the briefcase there is a monitor with a clear view of the naval marina and the large ship that the drone was about to crash into. Quinn immediately shot and killed the pilot and watched as his body falls to the ground. She and Puck, whose unruly mohawk stuck to parts of his face from his sweat, held his gun in position, walked slowly up to the device.

 

“Clear” said Agent McKenzie, the tan light green eyed,,raven haired brunette,who was a couple of inches taller than her, was on agent Fabray's right side as she lowered her rifle.

 

Quinn looked at the monitor and noticed that the drone was still going.

 

“Evans! This thing is still flying!” she yells through the earpiece.

 

“Okay, one freq down, two to go.” he tells her, even though she can barely hear him. Suddenly, she hears gunshots and rustling noises coming from Sam's frequency. She looks down and turns her head to see where they were coming from and sees nothing.

 

“Boss! One of them shot through my transmitter!” Sam says frantcially. She stands up and continues to look at the monitor as Puck turns to her.

 

“You know how to fly one these things?” he asks skeptically.

 

Quinn looks at him and takes a couple of steps back away from the monitor and aims her gun at the screen.

 

“No, but I know how to crash it.” she replies, cryptically.

 

She fires off a couple of rounds into the device and watches the metal briefcase as it goes up in flames. She then walks up to the edge and looks down at Sam, who is still crouched down behind the car.

 

“Evans, you ok?” she asks. She looks down at him and sees that he has his gun pointed towards the ground.

 

“I got one terrorist in site. I don't know if I got him, but he stopped shooting.” he says.

 

“Hold your position, we'll push.” Quinn instructs him. She cocks her gun to find that she has run out of bullets. She turns to Agent McKenzie, knowing that she always carried a couple of extra rounds for herself.

 

“I'm out.”

 

“Me too” Dani tells her as she cocks the rifle back into place.

 

Puck walks up to the senior Agent and hands her one of his last rounds. Quinn takes the magazine away from him and loads it into her own gun.

 

As Quinn is reloading her gun, the banged up silver door of the rooftop opens. A man appears with an automatic pistol aimed at Agent Fabray who was still looking down trying to reload her gun. Dani turns around and sees the shooter, who had the gun aimed at the senior agent and immediately leaps out from where she is standing.

 

“Shooter!” she screams as she leaps in the way of Agent Fabray, falling into the ground after being shot in her midsection.

 

Quinn turns around and looks up before firing at the intruder. Puck is couple of feet away, firing off his own rounds. They walk up to the door and fire into the cracks. A few minutes later, the man's body f tumbles out of the door and rolls to the ground. Agent Fabray puts her gun down and runs over

to where the fallen agent lay.

 

“Dani?” she says gently as kneels down and turns the girl over to remove her gear. Puck comes over and assists in removing her navy blue jacket NCIS jacket to get to her vest. Dani has her eyes closed as Quinn hastily rips off the pocket to the bullet-proof vest to find a gold fragment lodged inside. Agent Fabray looks up and sighs in relief and Agent Puckerman stares down at her, with an eyebrow raised.

 

“Are you ok?” he asks.

 

Dani begins to come to. Her eyes open slightly as she looks up at the two relieved agents.

 

“Ow. I just got shot at point blank range Puckerman, what do you think?” she says sarcastically.

 

“That you're not going to be going to Pilates class tomorrow?” he bites back with a smirk.

 

“Ow. Ugh.” she says still on the ground not being able to move. Quinn knows that Dani's not going to let her hear the end of this. That she'll probably use this as even more leverage to get Quinn to baby her at home for the next week or so, without complaint from the senior agent. And after everything the team has been through today and in the last few weeks with this assignment, she would gladly indulge and do the bidding of her wife, if she asked.

 

Quinn and Puck offer Dani their arms and held onto her as she stood up in all her five foot eight glory. Agent McKenzie stumbles forward a bit as Quinn grip her arms in a grip to steady her.

 

“Protection detail is over.” she tells Dani, with a ghost of a smile, knowing that the other agent would be happy about that.

 

Ever since the situation with Brody escalated, Quinn being as overprotective as she is,insisted that Dani have protection detail with her at all times when she couldn't be.She knew that Brody had his eyes set on her since the hostage situation in the morgue a few months ago. Quinn never told her wife this, but she had been worried that Brody was going to use Dani to get to her somehow.And Dani had been upset because she knew she could take care of herself and didn't need Quinn to treat her like she couldn't. It had been a source of tension in their household for the last few weeks, but in the end Dani conceded. She still wasn't happy about it, but if it meant Quinn getting a little piece of mind and not having anything else on weighing on her like this case had, then she was fine with it. Now that this was all over Quinn could not wait to get back into her workshop and work on her Lucille, the unfinished boat collecting dust in their basement.

 

Puck smiled at her and watched as she dusted herself off.

 

“You did a good job there, McKenzie.” he told her proudly.

 

When she first started at NCIS, Puck gave her a rough time. He thought that Dani was way too prissy to be an field agent there. And her showing up in heels on her first field assignment did nothing to get rid of his doubts. Yeah, he and Dani had their fair share of barbs thrown back and forth at each other. And there was that awkward tension for a while,after he discovered that Dani had been dating the boss even though he had a thing for her. But in the end, there was no one on the squad, besides the boss of course, that he was prouder of being able to work alongside.

 

“For once, Puckerman is right. You did do a good job today Dani. I'm proud of you.” she says softly but with conviction.

 

Nodding in agreement and allowed herself to smile for the first time in weeks, since Brody popped back into their lives. She spent most of her time worried about Dani, since she was the closest one out of all of them who had even gotten close enough to Brody and living to tell about it. In all honesty, the last few weeks, as they discovered Brody's threat, she had been angry with Dani for hesitating to kill him that. That she could have saved them all the trouble and just killed him when she had the chance in the morgue. She wanted to catch this guy so badly that she did not care that the CIA had specifically told NCIS to back off since he was working for them. Even though they didn't catch them and he was still a target on her radar, Quinn would enjoy their team's victory for now. Everyone was safe and going to be going home tonight, in their own beds for the first time in weeks. And that in itself was something to celebrate.

 

Dani looks at Quinn, with her big,bright eyes in playful shock, and smiles. In the seven years she had been working there at NCIS and the five years they had been together, not once did Quinn complement her while on the job. She may have told her at home once or twice, but never while they were working. Quinn didn't want the other agents to think that Dani was getting special treatment because of their relationship.Which is why when they first began seeing each other, they had a rule that their professional and personal lives would stay separate at all times. They figured it would keep them both safe and out of harm's way if no one but a select few knew the true nature of their relationship. Even the NCIS director Terri Schuester did not know they had been married for the last four years. Only the people on her team knew and they all promise not to say a word to anyone. She has a sneaky suspicion that Quinn had done something to ensure their silence, but she's pretty sure she does not want to know what that something was. She turns in Quinn's direction and laughs and replies sarcastically.

 

Meanwhile, Brody looks into the scope of the gun and sees his target Agent McKenzie stand up. The moment had finally arrived as he saw the brunette turn to Agent Fabray to say something. It was a shame he had to do this since he was quite fond of Dani.They had worked on an undercover assignment together while she was still in CIA and he became smitten with the girl, in spite of his relationship with Rachel. But unlike any of the other girls he was able to woo, she had turned him down politely saying that she was married to her job and a relationship would only get in the way. He'd like to believe that maybe in another life, they would have been good together. That she would have made a good wife for him and given him the normal life he desperately craved to have. That she could have saved him from himself.He pushes those thoughts away as he pushes his finger on the trigger and lets go.

 

“Wow. I thought I'd die before I ever heard a compliment from-”

 

Before she can finish her sentence, a gunshot rings out into the air and blood splatters all over Agents Fabray and Puckerman as Dani's body suddenly falls to the ground. Quinn and Puck stand rooted in their spots in complete shock. After a few moments,Quinn hesitantly looks over at Puck who

 

is covered head to toe in her wife's blood. She sympathized with her colleague as she saw the brief look of horror etched on to his face.Seeing him broke her out of her daze and she began frantically looking all over the place desperate to see where the shot came from. She picks up her rifle and fires a couple of rounds into the area, hoping that she could nail the son of a bitch wherever he was hiding. She looks in the direction of the building directly across from the one they were on and for a moment she thought she saw movement in her peripheral vision. For the first time in her life, Quinn ignored her gut feeling and began shooting in the opposite direction that she could have sworn she heard the gunshot come from, hoping that at least one of those bullets would catch Brody Weston and put the bastard out for good. Even if she felt an easy death was more than he deserved.

 

“Sorry Danielle.” Brody says ominously as he cocks the gun and aims it towards Agent Fabray.

 

For a brief moment, he contemplated ending it right there, kill two birds with one stone. Put poor Agent Fabray out of her misery.He figured by the time he was done playing with her head, she would wish for death.He thought better of it though and decided to go for the computer instead.He aimed the rifle to the street below. He fires off a couple of rounds into Agent Evan's computer, watching the machine black out and burst into flames, destroying nearly all physical evidence of his involvement.

He springs out of the chair and opens up the duffel bag, stuffing the rifle back into it as quickly as possible. When he's got it secure in the bag, Brody stands up and takes off towards the elevator. It would only be a matter of time before NCIS figured out that he was here and have the building surrounded. He also didn't want to stick around for the fall out of what he had done. He was not ready to face Quinn's rage just yet. There were still things that he needed to do to get inside of her head before he was ready to kill her. They would have their moment, soon.

 

As the elevator made it to the ground floor, he turned the corner of the office building and exited through the fire escape entrance. Once he was out of the building he stops in the abandoned alleyway and leans up against the brick wall of the building. He paused for a moment before a satisfied smirk made his way onto his lips. The job was complete and the warm, tingling feeling in his gut returned, the high was back. There was nothing like what he was feeling at this moment and there was no drug that could ever compensate for how good he felt after he killed someone. Not even the birth of his own daughter could replace how alive he felt right now and he doesn't think there ever will. It was the only time Brody had felt something good and he would savor it for now. The infallible Special Agent Quinn Fabray was finally broken. And soon, she would be dead.

 

He turns out into the sidewalk, whistling Sinatra's My way, putting one of his hands in his pants pocket and the other holding on to the black duffel bag. He would go back to his place and wait for Agent Fabray to make the next move.

 

 

 

 


	2. Afterglow

**21:15 (9:15 pm):**

**Morgue**

 

Dr. Shelby Corcoran, with her shoulder length chestnut hair, who appeared to be in her mid forties, trudged down the empty hallway of NCIS headquarters heading to autopsy. Her hands were in the pockets of her beat up leather jacket and her brown eyes downcast as she made her way down the quiet hallway, with the soft sounds of her black heels clicking on the floor kept her company. Normally there would be an agent or two that stuck around after hours finishing up paperwork or busy in interrogation, that she would bump into and make idle conversation with,before heading to her lab to prep her patients to be worked on the next day. Tonight though,there was not a soul to be found anywhere in this part of the building.

 

In her seventeen years at NCIS, Shelby enjoyed every second of her tenure as Chief Medical Examiner. She was eager to walk into her lab every morning, with her chai green tea in hand, ready to interact with the poor soul who ended up on her table, getting to know them better. She probably knew more about them in death than they knew of themselves in life. From an undiagnosed heart condition to what they ate before they died.At the end of the day when everyone had left and she had stitched her patient back in the condition they were in before, she would tell them goodbye like she would to an old friend, before going home for the day.

 

There was nothing about her job or the people who were unfortunate enough to end up on her table that fazed her. She had seen victims who had been dismembered to the point where she and her assistant Mike had to meticulously put back together before the families could claim them, sometimes unsuccessfully. She had seen bodies that were charred beyond recognition and they would need to use other means to figure out who they were. Throughout the worst of the worst cases Shelby had seen, none of them made her dread doing her job. She enjoyed being their companion and confidant until their families or next of kin came to pick them up. That was all true up until this afternoon, when she received a call from a distraught Noah Puckerman telling her that her next patient would be a dear friend and colleague of theirs.

 

 

Today was the first time in her career that she wanted to be anywhere that wasn't the autopsy room. For a moment she wanted to be selfish. To go home and slip on her red silk pajamas, open up a bottle of red wine and spend the night drinking away the sorrow that she felt for Dani and cry. Or at least wake up and realize that this was all a horrible dream and that all of the field agents were happy and healthy, trading quick witted barbs with one another in the bullpen, like they did every day. Before Quinn would reprimand them, mostly Noah, with a firm smack on the back of their heads and a stern get back to work. That everything would go back to the way it's supposed to be.

 

 

When she approached the silver double doors of autopsy, Shelby put her fingers around the one door handles and hesitated. Director Schuester had recommended they hire another medical examiner outside the agency to deal with Danielle's autopsy, out of conflict of interest on Shelby's part. She thought for a moment that maybe it wasn't too late to bring that person in and take some personal time off. The medical examiner pushed those thoughts away as she regained her composure and opened the door to the lab.

 

Shelby reaches over and flips the switch to the green service light, brighting the pitch black room enough to for her to see where she was going from the door. She hangs up her jacket,that was a bit damp from the rain outside, on the coat rack by the door and sets her black umbrella next to it. She walks over to the first silver table, where a lone black body bag awaited her. The medical examiner turns on the lamp above her, brightening up half of the room.

 

She couldn't helped but feel relieved that the medics who assisted her at the scene had respected her wishes to handle Dani with the utmost of care, as there was no noticeable damage to the bag. Shelby takes the zipper in her hand and as cautiously as possible, unzipped the bag. Dani was in the same condition that the medical examiner had left her with the paramedics. The former agent was paler than her natural bronze complexion and her eyes were closed this time, making things a bit easier for her.

 

The crimson bullet wound in the middle of her forehead was still there. She notices a dark brown stray hair out of place, taking her finger and brushed it back little putting it back in place. The medical examiner looked down at her fallen friend solemnly, silently cursing Brody for what he had done. The small lump that had formed in her throat had grown larger and she felt unshed tears begin to form in her eyes.

 

“ Oh Danielle, I am so sorry that this happened to you.” she says remorsefully.

 

Shelby gave one last glance to her dearly departed friend before walking over to the the sink to wash her hands. Tonight is going to be a very long and difficult night for the medical examiner. As she put the latex gloves on, preparing to examine the young woman's body, she couldn't help but think that herown thought daughter could and probably would have taken Dani's place on her table and in that bag. It was a thought she was determined not to dwell on as she proceeded on with her work.

* * *

 

 

**24:25 (12:25 am):**

**Bullpen**

 

The rain pouring down on the roof with the occasional roar of thunder served as white noise for Quinn, who had her once wild, short mane tied up into a pony tail.The normally well composed agent had dark circles under her eyes. She had been her for hours and hadn't slept at all. The senior agent had her head in her hands and her fingers as deep into her forehead as they would allow her to go. This little affliction of pain was the least she felt that she deserved. Quinn Fabray had failed today, for the first time in a long time. She failed to protect Dani from the sick little game Brody was playing with her. The team, her team, had lost a member of their little dysfunctional family because she allowed her guard to be down, while the bastard had been creeping around in the shadows waiting for his kill.

 

Quinn failed to take the bullet for her wife and give Brody what he wanted. She had let Brody get inside of her head and doubt her gut instincts and today he had won, for now.

 

Quinn looks over at Dani's now empty desk for the first time since Puck had dropped her off at the bullpen to go back to the crime scene to collect evidence. The senior agent doesn't remember much about the journey back to headquarters. She doesn't even remember how she got to her desk. The last thing the blonde could remember was the way Dani looked on that pavement.

 

_Quinn fired off the last rounds left in her clip, as the agent accepted the fact that shooting into thin air was useless. Brody was long gone by now, and all that was left was the carnage he left behind. The gun slips out of her hand as she walks over to Puck was still standing where she left him, covered in Dani's blood. She kneels down on both knees next to the body on the ground and takes a good look at it for the first time since the fallen agent was shot._

 

_A puddle of blood from the exit wound formed around Dani's head. For a moment, she was reminded of the fallen angels that her mother used to paint portraits of fallen agents that appeared on nearly every wall of her childhood home in Lima. Dani's skin begin to pale,as her body goes into rigor mortis._

 

_What got to Quinn the most was the way that Dani's eyes were looking at her. The eyes that only a few moments ago lit up with joy as hard ass senior agent, who showed no affection to anyone at work except for Tina, said that Dani did a good job today. The pale green eyes that she looked forward to seeing every morning, almost as much as she looked forward to the first of many of her tall cups of black coffee. The eyes that she ended up falling for and breaking one of her rules for after a tumultuous first meeting on Air Force One.Her eyes that were once full of life, were now dull and lifeless. Just like the victims they dealt with every day. It was almost as if she were looking at a stranger._

 

_It was then that Quinn realized that the only person in her life that she considered to be her family was gone. That now she truly was alone._

 

_Quinn stood up stoically and walked away from the body, not being able to deal with it anymore. The senior agent did not notice Puck come out of his haze and call for back up. She did not see the looks on Agents Evans and Lopez's face when they saw the body of their dead friend for the first time. The agent didn't notice Puckerman putting a comforting hand on her shoulder and escorting her to the car through her tears. Quinn didn't see the medics, Metro police or Shelby and Mike arrive as Puck drove off in her car back to the bullpen._

 

The blonde agent looked over at the empty desk, once again. Puck must have called Dani's older sister Brooke to come get her things before he went back to the rooftop. All of the nick knacks that the raven haired agent left on her desk were gone.The stress ball that Puck gave her after he came back from assignment in Cuba a couple of years ago. The little Princess Leia pez dispenser Sam had gotten for her after his first assignment on their team as a thank you for keeping Puck's hazing in line. The hand craved wooden picture frame that she had made for Dani as birthday present. Quinn had been smiling while playing with their Jethro, their purebred German Shepard, during their weekend getaway to Virginia Beach last year.It was missing as well. The only thing left of Dani's existence on the team is her black leather chair. The chair was still turned facing in the same direction that Agent McKenzie had left it in this morning before they went off to MTAG for a briefing. It was the same position Dani had always preferred it to be in, right in front of the senior agent's desk.

 

Just as Quinn turned around, facing forward again, a figure appears at her desk. Dani is as tanned as she had been that morning. Long brown hair perfectly primed, neatly flowing below her shoulder. She was wearing the navy blue NCIS jacket and white jeans that she had worn when they left. This time there was not a drop of blood to be found. Dani's were hands on her hips as her green eyes looked down at her suspiciously, as if she were preparing for an interrogation. The senior agent reluctantly looked up at the deceased woman's forehead only to see that the bullet wound was still there.

 

“ Why me?” Dani asks. She calmly points to her stomach, where there was a small indentation in her vest.

 

“Wasn't one bullet enough for you, _Quinn_?” she asks, with a bit of malice in her voice.

 

Quinn doesn't know what to tell her. She had been asking the same question of herself all day and still could not come up with an answer that will bring Dani any comfort.

 

“I don't know.” Quinn replies confused and in an uncharacteristically shaken voice.

 

Tired hazel eyes try to zone in on her wife, but she just doesn't have the strength to do it. The guilt that she feels consumes her as Dani moves from her spot near her desk and moves over to Quinn's desk. She slams her hand on top of Agent Fabray's desk and stares directly into her eyes enraged.

 

“You don't know? You don't know! Come, on! What's that famous _Fabray_ gut telling you now, huh?” Danielle says venomously.

 

 _Nothing,_ she wanted to tell her but thought better of it.Quinn puts her head down in shame as Agent McKenzie walks up to Quinn's chair and grabs the arm forcefully.

 

“Why did _I_ die instead of _you_?!” Danielle screams brokenly, as Quinn looks down and puts her hands on her ears, having enough and not being able to stomach the look Dani was giving her right now.

 

She didn't know why Dani had to die and she was still alive and it was tearing her apart. Brody wanted Quinn. He was, for some reason,obsessed with killing Quinn. Why did her Dani have to fall victim to the sick game Brody was playing with her? She just didn't know and her gut was certainly not helping her now.

 

When she looks up again, Dani was gone. The opening of the bullpen's elevator doors breaks Quinn out of her embattled thoughts.

 

She turns around to see the three remaining members of her team shuffle their way out of the elevator, soaked from head to toe, in the same navy blue NCIS jackets they wore this afternoon. Quinn had absentmindedly told Agent Puckerman as he was heading back to the crime scene to tell Lopez and Evans that they could go home and take tomorrow off. All three agents had refused and volunteered to spend however long it would take to gather enough evidence at the warehouse that would help them find Brody.

 

Puck walks up to her desk with a plastic bag in one hand and a manilla folder in the other, as Sam and Santana stayed close behind him.

 

“Boss, we found Brody's sniper nests.” Puck tells her. Quinn gets up out of her chair and walks over to the other side of her desk. She takes the folder out of Puckerman's hands and studies the photos.

 

“He was in an abandoned office building in the East.” Sam says after a few moments, taking over for Puck.

 

A look of realization passes through the hazel eyes of the agent, as her mind flashes back to this afternoon.

 

_She looks through the scope of her rifle, pointing in the direction of the office building.For a moment, she thought that she had seen something move in the corner of her eye. She waited a few seconds more before she turned around and focused on the noise she heard behind her._

 

Brody was right there in front of Quinn the entire time and she didn't even see him. He had a clear shot at the agent and he didn't take it. Not once did it cross her mind that he could have been in that close to where they were.

 

Agent Puckerman reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a small plastic bag.

 

“ He didn't place his brass.” Puck tells her as he gives the bronze shelling casings to the blonde agent.

 

Quinn tilts her head and looks at him questioningly. A she raises her hand to get a better look in the bag. Puck flinches a little thinking that the boss was going to smack him in the back of the head. But to Puckerman's surprise and shock, the slap never comes.

 

“They're La Poer 308's.” Sam says, trying to be helpful. She turns back to her desk and opens up a desk drawer.Sam takes a step back and looks on at his boss, worried that he may have pissed her off a little more than she already was.

 

“ Uh-I didn't mean that you couldn't boss, I was just trying-” he stutters, just as the senior agent pulls a pair of eye glasses out of the drawer. Quinn stops the probie before he embarrasses himself anymore, giving ammunition to the other two agents to use later on.

 

“I can't without my glasses, at least at night.” she admits waving him off, dismissively as she slips the agent slips the glasses on her ears.

 

“La Poers match grade sniper ammo, you guys find any bullets?” she asks.

 

“Uh-” Puck begins but is interrupted by Santana.

 

“None that matched the casings. I left three guys on the roof searching. Puckerman, Evans and I will head back up on the roof, boss.” Santana said tiredly. It was the first time the normally sarcastic brunette had said anything since they left the bullpen this afternoon.

 

Agent Fabray noticed the unusually quiet demeanor of the agent and the dark circles that had started to form around Santana's eyes. Santana had ben Dani's probie, when the latina had first started working at NCIS. In the beginning, the two butted heads constantly. Santana initially made fun Dani for being a prude, even going as far as describing her sexual exploits in great detail whenever her mentor was in the room, knowing it would make the other agent uncomfortable.

 

Two years ago, Quinn remembers to separate the two of them after they got into a fight in frustration over the way Dani interrogated their prime suspects in the murder of a Marine, who Santana had known from high school. Santana thought that her mentor had been too soft on the suspect, while Dani disagreed. The older agent had won for all intents and purposes, but Santana would always say that the only reason she one was because Matt, the old lab tech, pulled her away too quickly. Puck of who of course, filmed the confrontation from the beginning, says otherwise.The past year and a half, their relationship had gotten better and Dani became one of Santana's closest friend. She had a feeling Santana was beating herself up in the same way that she was right now.

 

“Santana, you're soaking wet, go put some dry clothes on.” Quinn orders her, almost motherly. Santana doesn't move from her spot and crosses her arms.

 

“Brody's rooftop, wasn't much higher than ours. The rooflines behind us were lower. No telling how far a full metal jacket would go after killing Dani.” Quinn tells them, flinching a little at the end.

 

“How does she know it's a full metal jacket?” Sam asks confused. He didn't know much about guns and ballistics. Sam was still learning how to use his own weapon properly. The probie had only been working at NCIS for a year in Norfolk and about six months in DC, after graduating from MIT with a computer science degree.

 

“Did you see Dani?” Puck asks him. Sam looks down at his feet guiltily before answering.

 

“I didn't want to.”

 

Sam only saw Dani's body for a couple of seconds on the rooftop before turning himself and a hysterical Santana away. He wanted to remember the Dani that he was working with this morning, the one who made fun of his Superman tie and laughed boisterously when Puck took it off of him and played hot potato with Santana as he struggled helplessly to get it back. He didn't want to remember her as just another corpse on Dr. Corcoran's table.

 

“Her head was intact.” Puck tells him, trying to comfort the shaken up agent.

 

“So, she didn't look bad?” Sam asks, almost child like. Puck puts his arm around probie's shoulder sympathetically.

 

“No, not at all probie. In fact, a little mortuary putty right here, she'll be as good as new.” he assures him while pointing to the middle of his forehead. Wanting to lighten up the heavy tension in the room, Puck turns to the probie.

 

“ Of course, she was having a bad hair day though, right back here” he continues, gripping the back of Sam's head and letting go a few seconds later.

 

“Cause a full metal jacket will put a hole the size of a grape fruit right about there-” he jokes as he tries to put his finger behind Evan's head. Sam slaps his hand away and stares pointedly at the his mentor.

 

“Noah, please.” Santana begs, not being able to handle the banter between the two agents anymore. Seeing Dani that way had freaked her out and she didn't want to her them talking about it. While Quinn is trying her best to keep her composure and not rip off Puckerman's head. Puck looks at his colleagues and noticed that no one was laughing.

 

“I'm sorry kid.” he apologizes directing it at Santana and the boss. She nods and brushes it off. Quinn interrupts their moment tries to get everyone's focus back on Brody. She holds up the bullets for everyone to see.

 

“Three rounds? Only one hit?” she asks suspiciously.

 

“Well, he must have popped off a couple of rounds, while you were weaving across the roof.” Puck tries to explain. Quinn shakes her head.

 

“I was standing still when Dani was shot.”she counters.

 

“Evans measured the distance at nearly 600 meters.” Puck tells the senior agent.

 

“572.” Sam adds.

 

Puck takes in a deep breath and looks down, before saying what he had figured out a couple of hours ago.

 

“ There was a slight shift in the wind, he misses you and hits Dani.” the junior agent concludes. Quinn's mind goes back to the roof top.

 

_Quinn moves her head around the roof top frantically for any signs of Brody while Agent Puckerman stands there, not moving, looking at Agent McKenzie's body. She focuses in on the flag nearby and notices that it was still._

 

“There was no wind.” Quinn says definitively.

 

Puck and Santana look at each other quizzically before turning their attention to back to their boss. Sam on the other hand, walks over to his desk and starts playing with a pen.

 

“So, what you're saying is that he was aiming at Dani? You're the one he wants to kill? Why bother with Dani?” Puck asks, outraged.

 

Sam puts the pen back down and before the senior agent could say anything, he speaks up as Agent Fabray walks over to his desk, examining the damaged controller on his desk.

 

“Brody had a thing for Dani. For years.” Sam confesses.

 

All eyes are on Sam as the probie looks down and puts his hands in his khakis. He knew withholding this information from the boss was stupid, but he respected Dani's wish to keep this a secret from everyone else. He looks at Quinn and goes on.

 

“She told me that he was always coming on to her,in autopsy, when he kidnapped her and let her go”

 

Agent Fabray looks at Santana, who nods her head, confirming that probie was telling the truth. A few months ago, she was ease dropping in on probie and Dani talking about Brody while she was dropping a file off for Shelby. The junior agent meant to interrogate Dani about it later on, but let it go. At the time, she didn't think it was worth wasting her time on trying to find out why Brody was obsessed with her mentor.

 

“What? She never told me that.” Puck says hurt. Puck thought that he and Dani were practically badass fraternal twins. He had made it his mission to know everything about Dani's life and invade her privacy, in spite of her many protests. It stung that she would leave him out of the loop like this and that he could not figure it out for himself.

 

“Gee, what a surprise,Puckerman.” Santana says sarcastically, rolling her eyes. Puckerman turns around and looks pointedly at the other brunette.

 

“What was that Lopez?” Puck asks her before he smacks her upside the head, her pony tail. Not having the energy to deal with their bickering today, Quinn looks up at them exhausted.

 

“Don't do that Noah.” Quinn chastises him. She turns to Sam and points to the bullet hole in the metallic briefcase.

 

“When was this hit, Samuel?” she asks gently.

 

“When I was pinned down, boss.” Sam replies.

 

Quinn holds up the controller for Sam to see.

 

“Did he have a good shot at this?” she asks, pointing to the large bullet hole in the briefcase.

 

"Our car was between the terrorist and the controller. There's no way he could have hit it.” Sam explains. His blue eyes look up at his boss.

 

“Boss, I'm-I'm so sorry. I should have realized it was Brody.” he says regretfully.

 

“Why didn't he pop Evans?” Puck asks curiously.

 

“ Oh thanks, a lot Puck.” Sam says sarcastically.

 

“ Hey, all I'm saying is that you are a sizable target, that controller wasn't.” Puckerman replies defensively. Agent Lopez shrugs her shoulders in agreement. Sam looks at them in disbelief. Even when they weren't in the best of spirits, Santana and Puck always found a way to gang up on him.

 

“ Are you two trying to say that I'm fat.” he asks, looking down at his abs insecurely.Puck sees him doing this and uses the opportunity to cheer himself up a bit.

 

“No... I mean, maybe a tad bit around the waist. Little flab under the chin.” Puck tells him as Sam puts his fingers around his jaw to feel for any fat.

 

“That new protein shake you're on is doing you no favors Evans.” Santana adds smirking, feeling a little like her old self again.

 

Quinn, who was not paying any attention to them, notices that Brody couldn't have shot Sam even if he wanted to. The way that he was positioned, wouldn't have allowed him to do so.

 

“ He didn't have an angle on Sam.” the blonde agent says defending the probie.

 

“You owe that shooter from the warehouse a “thank you” note. He saved your life.” says Santana. Sam looks away, not exactly thrilled by the news. Agent Fabray ignores her and continues on.

 

“The bullet entered here. It could have ricocheted into the car.” she continues. Sam walks away from his desk and turns to boss.

 

“I'- I'll get on it boss.” he tells her, determinedly. Quinn nods at him then looks at her phone. She turns to Puck next.

 

“Tina should be in by now. Noah...see what you can do about that brass.” she says giving him a look. Puck nods his head, understanding what the boss is really telling him to do.

 

Quinn walks away from Sam's desk and walks back over to her own. She grabs her NCIS jacket and throws it on. The senior agent felt useless around the office and she needed to get away to clear her head.They were stuck in square one and they were no closer to finding Brody than they were a few hours ago and it was making her lose her mind.Once she had her jacket on, she turned to the three agents, who were watching her closely.

 

“ I'm going for coffee. Can I get you three anything?” the senior agent asked.

 

Puck's brown eyes bugged out and looked at his boss as if she had grown an extra head. The boss had never been nice to him in the nine years he had worked at NCIS. _She must have been in really bad shape_ He says to himself.

 

“No.” Puck replies, scratching the back of his head.

 

“No, thanks.” Sam says confused.

 

“I'm fine over here.” Santana says as she walks over to her desk, ready to get back to work.

 

Quinn looks at the for one last, before she picks up her phone and walking out of their bullpen. She gets into the elevator and disappears downstairs. When Puck sees Quinn enter the elevator, he turns around facing Santana and Sam's desks.

 

“That's a first” he says as he walks to his own desk, that was on the left side of Agent Fabray's desk. Sam looks up at Puck from the computer as he sits down.

 

“She called me Samuel.” Sam says. Quinn never called anyone on the team by their name. Not even the director. She either called people by their last names or the little nicknames that she came up for them.

 

“Fabray patted me on back.” Santana adds, as a look of disgust briefly passes her face.

 

The boss was not a sentimental, touchy feeling kind of person. She had kept most things to herself, a personality quirk that they shared. Quinn her hardest tried not to get too attached to anyone or anything in this unit. Most of the time Santana thought that Agent Fabray had no feelings and was more or less of cyborg.

 

“It was kind of nice.” Sam says, smiling a little as Puck shakes his head at him.

 

“Nice?! I don't want nice. She's not Fabray if she's nice.” Puck says incredulously.

 

Puck knew Quinn Fabray to be a lot of things by a lot of people in the last nine years he had worked there. But nice was not one of those things, unless you were Tina or Shelby.

 

As the elevator comes to a stop, Quinn walks out of it hastily and walks to the exit of NCIS headquarters. She walks down the steps, as the heavy rain had yet to subside and onto the sidewalk. A black SUV with Marine plates drives by her and the blond agent regards it for a moment, feeling a bit strange. She brushes it off as her being exhausted and her body finally succumbing to everything that had happened today. Maybe she would go back to the house and let Jethro out for a bit before leaving him with Dr. Corcoran for a while. She couldn't be in that house tonight or any other night for the foreseeable future. There were too many memories there..Pulling the hood over her head, Quinn walks into the alleyway.

 

* * *

 

 

**01:30 am**

**Forensics**

 

Tina sat at her desk, with her blue streaks of hair in her face, staring at the black and white cartoon vampire bat,that was supposed to be a caricature of her fangs and all, in her hands. Dani had drawn that for the first two months the agent began working for NCIS. At first, the forensic scientist hated it, thinking that the new blood was making fun of her and the way she's dressed. Tina had dealt with it enough in high school and didn't need to deal with it from some new agent that would be out of here in six months. She also saw the way Quinn and Puck looked at Dani in the bullpen, one more discreet than the other. She did not want this new agent to come in between the two people she had considered her family.

 

As the six months the new agent had been there rolled by, the forensic scientist grew closer to Dani. Tina found the new agent easier to talk to about certain things than she couldn't with Quinn or Shelby. She quickly found out that the other girl was spontaneous, adventurous and willing to try anything more than once, in spite of Puck and later Santana's insistence of her being a prude. In the last few years, Dani had become the best friend Tina had ever had, and she couldn't believe that the agent was gone.

 

“You're a mess girl.” a familiar voice teases, breaking her out of her grief filled thoughts.

 

Tina lifts her head up and turns around in her chair, thinking that the lack of caffeine and sleep depravation were causing her mind to play tricks on her. But to her shock, Agent McKenzie was standing right behind her with her hands on her hips and a smile. Although this Dani was a far cry from the one that she had coffee with this morning.

 

Agent McKenzie had on a bleached blonde wig with a big black cross on her neck. She was also wearing a black laced dressed with a high slit that Tina had lent her last Halloween for a costume party gig for her friend Joe's band. Dani had managed to guilt Quinn into going, who in turned forced the rest of the team to tag along.In spite of Agent Lopez's many complaints on the way to the gig.

 

Dani walks up to her desk, shaking her head at what she sees.

 

“Red eyes, no makeup, if ever there was a time for black lipstick its now.” she says lightly.

 

Tina allows a small smile to appear on her face. She looks down at the black tube of lipstick for a moment before picking it up and applying it on her lips. When she's done, she presses her lips together lightly and stares at her reflection in the small mirror that she had on the wall. Dani appeared behind her.

 

“Remember when we first met? I couldn't believe you were a forensic scientist. I thought Goths had bats for pets or vise versa.” Dani remembers.

 

Tina throws her head back, trying to contain her giggling. It was Dani's first day on the job and they had been investigating the death of a Marine, whose parachute didn't open up in time. Quinn had been down in autopsy with Shelby and her old assistant Matt, trying to get more information. And Dani had mistaken her for a suspect that they were supposed to interrogate. After a few minutes of the agent trying to get Tina into the interview room, Quinn came up and explained to the frustrated agent that Tina was their forensic scientist.

 

Tina wiped her eyes with her hands, looking at her old friend.

 

“I really liked you, Danielle, a lot.” she says, with a tremble in her voice. Dani rolls her eyes and pats her on the shoulder.

 

“Don't you dare start that again.” Dani says sternly.

 

“Now, where are your pigtails? I _love_ your pigtails.” she asks, moving on for the other girl's sake.

 

The forensic scientist takes one of the rubber bands on her wrists off and gathers her hair. She slips the rubber band back on her hair, before moving on to the next one.

 

“That's better.” Dani says. She turns around, taking a couple of steps back.

 

“You were _very_ persistent ,stutters.” she says playfully. “First the dark lipstick, then the black fingernail polish. Next thing you know, I have a tattoo on my ass.”

 

Tina vaguely remembers the night Dani had gotten her tattoo. They had been working together for a year and a half at the time and they had just closed a trying case. The two women went out for drinks and by two am, Tina was able to convince friend Brett, who owned a tattoo shop to work on Dani's first tattoo, in spite of Dani being too wasted to give consent. As her friend worked on a drunken Agent Mckenzie's tattoo, she went on and on about her inappropriate attraction to their boss. How Agent Fabray would do something to infuriate her one minute and turned her on in the next. By the time they passed out at four in the morning, Dani had a small heart with a little “Q” in the middle. After that night, Tina dedicated herself to playing matchmaker for her lonely boss and her new friend,.

 

“Hehe, that was a great night.” Tina says. Dani's eyes widen as she realizes something.

 

“ Oh God, Shelby and Mike are gonna see it!” Dani says horrified.

 

The two women look at each other for a moment and break out laughing. It was the first time that Tina had genuinely laughed and it felt good to know that even in death, Dani still found a way to make her laugh even if it was at the agent's own expense. Dani was the first one to stop laughing.

 

“ I'm dead and I'm embarrassed. How could this day get any worse.” the ghost says as she puts her hands over her eyes and continues laughing, struggling to keep her composure.

 

“Haha.” Tina says as she pulls up the sleeves of her white lab coat and wipes her eyes.

 

Puck walks in with the bullet casings to find Tina sitting and laughing at her desk, alone. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. First the boss is acting like she was human and now Tina was laughing at thin air. What could possibly happen next, Santana admitting that she was in love with him?

 

He shrugs off his thoughts and approaches Tina carefully.

 

“You okay?” he asks her, looking at her with one of his eyebrows raised.

 

Tina looks up and notices that Dani was gone and Agent Puckerman standing behind her. She stands up and wipes off the dust off her lab coat and turns to him.

 

“I will be, as soon as I tie up my pigtails.” she says with a smile. Tina tightens the rubber band on her pigtail and drops it.

 

“There, now what can I do for you?” she asks him.

 

“You are weirder than Fabray.” Puck tells her as he walks over to the island in the middle of the room.

 

“How so?” Tina asks him, with her curiosity getting the better of her. She hadn't seen Quinn all day and didn't have a chance to talk to her since Shelby came in and told her about Dani.

 

“She's being _nice._ ” he says.

 

Tina looks at him, confused.She had no clue as to what Agent Puckerman was talking about.

 

“Quinn is always nice.” she counters, confused.

 

“To you and Shelby maybe. Me, she growls at. Sometimes while smacking me upside my head.” Puck says as his hand automatically goes to the back of his head. For the first time in nine years, his head didn't feel swollen and he wasn't sure that he liked it very much.

 

“Which makes you feel wanted.” she says understandingly. He looks down at the shell casings in his hand.

 

“Yeah.” he says simply.

 

“ So, what do you got for me Puckerman?” Tina asks as she is takes the bronze shell casings out of his hands and examines them. She knows that Puck isn't the best when it comes to talking about the way he was feeling and decides to give him a break.

 

“308 casings from Brody's sniper's nest.” Puck says. The goth takes the shell casings out of the Ziploc bag and puts them into her hands.

 

“You guys would give me the most popular caliber in the world.” she says sarcastically, setting the casings down on the table next to her computer.

 

“Well, hey I just found them.” he says defensively as he puts his hands in his jacket pocket.

 

“Can you tell me what weapon he used?” Puck asks, not waiting for the scientist to respond.

 

Tina questioningly looks at the agent.

 

“A 308?” she says, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Puck rolls his eyes his eyes.

 

“No, what model 308, Chang.” he says slightly frustrated. Tina crosses her arms over herself defensively, not knowing what Puckerman wanted from her.

 

“You don't know?” she asks.

 

“ Would I be asking _you_ if I did know?” Puck counters, feeling his agitation grow. He had other things to do and Tina really wasn't any help in moving things a long a bit faster.

 

“Well how am _I_ supposed to know?” Tina whines tiredly, with her shoulders sagging a bit.

 

“Because you're the firearms expert.” Puck reminds her.

 

A light bulb went off in Tina's head. The energy that had drained from her earlier had suddenly come back with a bang. She began to pace around her lab table to her computer, moved the reports she had been working on earlier and pushed them over to the side. She nods her head a begins to login into her computer.

 

“That I am. And when I'm done, I will tell you the primer,the percentage of nickel and copper in the brass, whether or not all three rounds were fired from the same weapon, which you assume but I can prove or disprove.” Tina rambles as she points in Puck's direction, as she continues on.

 

“I will tell you who manufactured the the ammo, the batch number and perhaps where it was sold. I will _also,_ with some degree of of accuracy, tell you if it was fired from a lever action, a bolt action,a semi-automatic or an automatic weapon.”

 

Tina walks over to the island where Puck is and slams the shell casings on the desk.

 

“ _However,_ there is no way in _hell_ I can tell you which of the _eighty-seven_ different 308 models fired those rounds!” she shouts as she puts her head in her hands, exhausted.

 

Puck looks on helplessly as he watches his friend break down. He had no clue what to do or say to her to make her feel better. He couldn't even make himself feel better at the moment. The team was slowly falling a part, that even the boss seems just as hopeless as the rest of them felt. So he looked on for a moment and let Tina get it all out as he runs a hand through his mohawk, nervously. He approaches the desk, calmly.

 

“ The rounds were La Poers.” he says gently. Tina raises her head up.

 

“What?” she asks confused.

 

“La Poer made the ammo” he says, reaching out and grabbing one of the shells. “ Logos are on the rim.” Puck uses his pointer finger to go around the edge of the bullet. Tina follows the agent's finger and sees the engraved words “La Poer”. She doesn't say anything for a moment before looking at the agent with unshed tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

 

“ Puck, I'm gonna miss her so much.” she says hollowly. Puck wraps his arms around her waist and squeezes her as tightly as he can. She nuzzles her head into his neck, finally letting it all out.

 

“Me too.” he confesses softly into her jet black locks.

 

* * *

 

 

**01:59 am:**

**Outside of Forensics**

 

Brody rolls down the windows of the car, with the duffel bag in the passenger seat and parks it a few feet away from the window of the forensics lab. He looks out the car window quickly,checking to make sure that there was no one walking by, before pulling out the black rifle from this afternoon. The rouge agent briefly pulls out his cell phone and scrolls through his inbox, hoping to find the message that he was expecting to see.He had sent the woman a dozen text messages alone, hoping that she would answer him to at least tell him to stay away. But his disappointment, there was no message to be found. Brody throws the cellphone into the seat and looks into the scope of his rifle and sees his target, the forensic scientist, hugging Agent Puckerman in her office.

 

He angles the rifle until the cross hairs of the rifle land perfectly onto the scientist and the agent. Brody squeezes the trigger and releases it.

 

Tina hears a loud crash coming from the window and feels something fly past her, nearly hitting her arm. Puck grabs her quickly and lands on top of her as they hit the floor. The bullets continue to rain inside of the room, with no signs of stopping anytime soon.

 

Meanwhile, Quinn is walking up to the MTAG building coming back from her much needed coffee run.She was trying to balance two large cups of coffee in her hands while getting through the rain. As she walks pass the forensics lab, the senior agent moves her head as she feels something fly past her and breaking the window to the forensics lab.. The cups of coffee in her hand fall to the ground as she pulls out the gun out of its holster and takes off into the building in a sprint.

 

As soon as it was safe, Puck pulled his hand gun out of his holster of his belt.

 

“Ahh.” Tina squeals, hitting Puck on his chest. He looks down at her.

 

“You hit?” he asks concerned. Puck rolls off her and stands up, dragging her to a nearby table.

 

“No.” she grunts out. “You're heavy.”

 

Puck pulls his gun out and crouches down by the window, firing off a couple of rounds

 

“Sorry about that.” he says. Tina's hand accidentally lands on his abs.

 

“God, no wonder you're so heavy, Puck, you're all muscle” she says, patting his stomach in awe. Puck pushes her hand away as a bullet ricochets off the black island table.

 

“ Tina, shh.” Puck says quietly, not taking his focus off of that window. The forensic scientist looks down at his butt and taps it lightly.

 

“ Hey, you've even got a nice booty.” she says and winks. Puck turns to her,smirking.

 

“ Is this how you deal with getting shot at?” the junior agent asks.

 

“I don't know, this is my first time.” Tina says innocently as she shrugs her shoulders.

 

Puck leers at her for a second as copious amounts of spank bank images cross his mind. A bullet flies through the window and nearly nicks his shoulder reminding him of what is going on and fires a couple of more rounds out of the window.

 

“ Tina?” Quinn yells as she rushes into the lab. She turns all the lights off and crouches her back down. Puck turns his head, facing Agent Fabray.

 

“ Boss, get down, taken fire.” he tells her urgently.

 

Agent Fabray bends her back down and rushes to turn the lights off in the room.

 

Brody blankly looks out the window at the building one last time. He clicks the rifle and the round lands in his gloved hand. He tosses out the remaining round into the pouring rain and takes off.

 

As they hear the sounds of tires skidding away, Puck looks out the window, checking to see if the shooter was still out there. Quinn, who is moves to sit next to Tina, looks up and is relieved to see that Puck was okay. She turns her attention to Tina seeing that she is shaking a little.

 

“You ok?” the senior agent asks, panting slightly.

 

“Yeah.” Tina says, nodding her head.

 

The senior agent then turns over to Agent Puckerman, who bends down to her level.

 

“ Close all the bridges between Anacostia Park and tell Metro cops its a crime scene.” she orders.

 

“Ok boss” he says.

 

Puck gets down on his knees and is about to crawl away, when Quinn grabs him by the leg and pulls him back.

 

“Wait, what if he has night vision scope?” she asks, stopping him. Agent Puckerman gets as low onto the ground as he can, nodding in agreement with his superior. Wondering why he didn't think of that in the first place.

 

“ That's a good point, boss” Puck replies.

 

He turns around, with his Sig Sauer in hand, and crawls his way out of the room.

 

Quinn turns in Tina's direction and looks at her worriedly. It was the second time today that she had underestimated Brody and how ruthless he is. Because of her mistake, nobody on her team was safe anymore and everyone was a target. She was still trying to figure out the rogue agent's angle. Why go after Tina or Dani, when he has had plenty of opportunities to kill her or Sam when he had the shot? Whatever angle he was playing at, she would make sure that her team was prepared at all times, even if it meant storming into Director Schuester's office and ordering a total lockdown of the building.

 

“ I will get you bullet proof glass.” Quinn says determined.

 

“There's no such thing, Quinn.” Tina says.

 

“Ok fine, bullet resistant glass then.” Quinn counters. She looks at Tina's hair and sees a piece of glass sticking out. The blonde agent gently takes the glass out of her hair and flicks it off.

 

“ Brody didn't shoot at you and hit Dani by mistake did he? He's after me now?” Tina asks dreadfully.

 

Quinn didn't know what to say to comfort the forensic scientist.Brody was coming after the people that she cared for the most. He wanted her to suffer to the point where the senior agent begged for death out of guilt for not being able to stop him. Brody had already taken so much from her today that she refused to let him take the piece of mind of the rest of her team in order to get to her.

 

“I was walking by the window when he fired.” Quinn lies.

 

Tina takes one look at her, knowing that she was lying. As much as Agent Fabray liked to think that nobody could read her well enough to know whether or not she was telling the truth she could. One look into the blonde's expressive hazel eyes and she could see that Brody was beginning to get to her. And that she was terrified at what he might do next.

 

“You're only saying that to make me feel better.” Tina pouts. Quinn wraps her right arm around Tina and pulls her in close.

 

 

“I'll keep you safe, Tina.” the blonde agent promises.

 

_I'll do whatever it takes to keep you all safe. For Dani's sake and my own._

 

* * *

 

 

**03:30 am:**

**Morgue**

 

Dr. Corcoran signs off on the small jar in her hands, completing the last of her samples for the night. She had been working on Danielle for the last few hours and was ready to put an end to this nightmarish night. Her friend, from what she could tell, had died in optimum health. There were no

physical signs of disease. Her organs had been functioning well and would be of some good use to a sick person who needed them. There was something in her preliminary findings though, that made her hope that Agent Fabray had taken her advice, for once, and had gone home for the night.

 

She places the jar down on the table gently and looked down at her friend. The white sheet covered all of her body up to her collar bone. The expression on her face was serene and peaceful, almost as if she were just in a deep sleep. The medical examiner remembered fondly all of the times Dani used to come in whenever they were working a case around the clock and grabbed one of the white sheets, laying down on one of the silver tables and fell asleep. It didn't bother her one bit that she had slept in a room full of corpses.

 

Shelby looks at the fallen agent's eyes and suddenly sees them blink open. Green eyes stare at Shelby and smile.

 

“I appreciate you keeping me covered in front of the others, _especially_ Puckerman” Dani thanks her, as her nose scrunching up in disgust at the thought of Puck seeing her naked. Shelby shakes her head chuckles at the fact that even in death, Dani did not want to give agent Puckerman the satisfaction of being able to say he saw her naked.

 

“ Yes, well I know how modest you are.” Shelby cracks. Dani's smile fades away after that and her eyes look downcast as the mood in the room suddenly becomes somber.

 

“ _Were_. I'm dead now,Shelby.” Dani corrects softly. The medical examiner shifts her feet uncomfortably, realizing her mistake and poor choice of words.

 

“I shouldn't be dead, I could have killed Brody right here in autopsy when I had the chance.” Dani recalls, bitterly. It should have been Brody on this table and not her. But because she listened to her heart instead of her gut, Dani had lost her life and everything that mattered to her.

 

_Shelby takes her attention away from her ailing assistant on the silver table and focuses in on Agent McKenzie, who was in the middle of a stare down with Brody. The agent had her hand hovered over the scalpel. She looks like she is about to grab it until she looks into their captor's eyes. By the time she snaps out of her daze, it's too late. Brody grabs the scalpel and tosses it before grabbing Dani by the neck._

 

“ _That was a test, Agent McKenzie.” he says coldly._

 

As Shelby is brought out of her flashback, she moves closer to the table.

 

“Why did you hesitate? With Brody?” Shelby wonders. It was a question that had been in the back of her mind since ever since that day.

 

Dani's eyebrows scrunch together, as she remembers what she saw as he looked down on her. The pain and anguish that Dani saw in Brody's crystal blue eyes, made her second guess herself. From what she had read about his life based on his file, they had similar upbringings. Neglectful parents who had high profile jobs, who didn't give a crap about their children. And as soon as they had the chance, they disowned them. In that moment, she felt a certain kinship to Brody and for a moment, he reminded her of Quinn.

 

“His eyes. There was something about his eyes that made me not want to kill him.” Dani says solemnly.

 

Shelby looks down at her sympathetically.

 

“His eyes were like ice to me.” Shelby says softly, looking away from her.

 

In all of the encounters that the medical examiner has had with the double agent, there was not one point in time that Shelby had ever fallen for the facade that Brody thought other people wanted to see.

From day one, she saw a darkness within him that unsettled her for some reason. One that she couldn't explain until now. If only Dani had seen him for what he really was in the autopsy incident, maybe she would have had the courage to kill him then.

 

Shelby looks down to see that Dani's eyes were closed once again.

 

The medical examiner looks up and sees the silver doors of autopsy open and a frazzled looking blonde storming towards her. When Quinn gets close to her, she quickly covers up the rest of Dani's body with the white sheet. On top of all of the things that senior agent may be dealing with, she did not need to see her wife that way again.

 

When Quinn stops pacing and looks up at Shelby, there were dark circles underneath the wild and blazing hazel eyes. She looked worn down and wet from the rain. There was also a big brown coffee stain that ran down her shirt. As Shelby was about to offer the agent a change of clothes, she was interrupted.

 

“ Brody fired into Tina's lab.” Quinn rushes out. Shelby's brown eyes widen in disbelief.

 

“ Good Lord.” Shelby states, shocked. She knew that Brody was ruthless, but she did not think that he would stoop as low as he has.

 

“ It had to have come from across the river from Anacostia Park.” Quinn continues on, ignoring Shelby.

 

“Was Tina hurt?” Shelby asks, looking concerned. Quinn nods her head.

 

“No. She is a little shaken up though, Puck is with her.” Quinn replies.

 

“In the lab?” Shelby asks, walking over to the other side of the room and into her silver cabinet.

 

She reaches inside the cabinet and grabs the vintage scotch, a square bottle with golden liquid in it and a couple of red plastic cups. Normally, Shelby waited until after work to drink alone or go over to Agent Fabray's house and share a drink with her and Dani sometimes, if she didn't feel like being alone.But that obviously was not going to be happening tonight.

 

“In the bullpen, writing up an incident report.” Quinn tells her.

 

The senior agent's gaze fell upon the white sheet covering up Dani's body. Her jaw clenches and she wraps her hands around her stomach, suddenly feeling nauseous. A lump formed in her throat and the guilt that had temporarily subsided with the situation in Tina's lab, came back in full force.

 

“Should have brought in a new M.E., Shelby.” Quinn observes distractedly, her eyes never leaving Dani's body.

 

“Couldn't. Not for Danielle.” Shelby says solemnly. Shelby wanted to make sure that her friend was well taken care of. She knew that any other medical examiner would have seen her as just another murder victim. The medical examiner felt Dani deserved more than that for her sacrifice.

 

Quinn nodded her head in agreement as Shelby poured the golden brown liquor into the plastic cups. The M.E. offered a cup to the senior agent, who politely handed it back to her. Quinn just could not find it in her to drink tonight. With Brody still alive and somewhere out in the city, threatening the people she had come to care about. Her Dani's lifeless body was right in front of her and it was all her fault. Quinn balls hands into a small fists at her sides. Dani was right, it should have been her on that table.

 

Quinn walks up to the table and stares down at the spot where Dani's face should have been. Her fingers hovered around the edge of the white sheet and for a moment, she was tempted to lift it up and look at Dani's face. Her hands drop to back down to her sides before she does.

 

“I've lost my fair share of men and women in combat. You hope it doesn't happen, but it does.” Quinn says, with a rasp in her voice.

 

Dr. Corcoran pulls the stool from the table up to the counter and sits down on it. She nervously takes a sip out of the glass and observes Quinn carefully. The medical examiner had known the senior agent since she first began at NCIS. In all of that time, she had never seen Quinn Fabray as terrified as she looked now. The agent's fearlessness was one of the reasons why she had moved up the ranks so quickly and left her being the youngest field agent to have her own team at twenty-five. It was unsettling to see her this way and the medical examiner knew that it was only bound to get worse for her friend.

 

“But this time is different.” Shelby states simply as she takes another drink out of her glass. Guilt began to consume the medical examiner, as she remembers a conversation she had with another agent last week.

 

_Shelby had walked into the bathroom, intent on calling her daughter back. She had been on a conference call with another colleague all morning, talking her through a tough autopsy and missed the dozens of calls, twenty text messages and four panicky voicemail messages from the young mother. It was her granddaughter's first day at daycare and even though it was in the same building that Rachel had worked in, she was still a nervous wreck about it. Shelby thought that maybe if she managed to calm the frantic woman down a bit, she would stop harassing her at work.She reaches into her purse and searches for her cellphone._

 

 

_As the medical examiner walked further into the bathroom, the sounds of someone throwing up, coming from the last stall at the end, caught her attention. She puts the phone back into the her purse and knocks on the slightly ajar stall door._

 

“ _Are you alright in there?” Shelby asks. The retching noises stop as the occupant starts coughing. Shelby opens the door to find a brunette woman hunched over the toilet and holding on to the rim. The woman turns around and Shelby sees that it is Agent McKenzie. Shelby walks up to her and puts her hand on her forehead._

 

_Dani swats her hand away and clears her throat._

 

“ _I'm fine Shelby, just got a little sick at breakfast is all.”Dani assures her with a tight smile, as she stands up and brushes off the imaginary lint on her black pants._

 

_Shelby squints her eyes at the agent skeptically, not believing her story. Quinn had come to her earlier,concerned that there was something wrong with Dani. According to the senior agent, Dani could only eat a little orange juice and a piece of toast for breakfast that morning, without throwing up. The medical examiner had felt sorry for the girl remembering that the last time she felt that way was when she was pregnant with her daughter Rachel._

 

_Shelby's eyes widen and she puts her hand on her mouth,as she figures out what is going on.Dani looks down at her standard issued black boots, not looking up when she feels Shelby's hand on her shoulder._

 

“ _How far along are you,hun?” Shelby asks softly._

 

“ _About six weeks or so.” Dani says, with a smile. “ It's the reason why I went to see Director Schuester a few days ago about taking a few months off as soon as we catch Brody.”_

 

_Shelby's eyes light up as she takes the young agent into her arms in a big bear hug. Dani giggles at her friend's attics as the medical examiner releases her from the hug._

 

“ _Congratulations, momma! It looks like we'll have another little addition to the team.” Shelby squeals,while rubbing Dani's stomach._

 

“ _Does Quinn know that the invitro worked this time?” Shelby asks curiously. Dani bites down on her lip and looks down._

 

“ _I haven't had the opportunity to tell her yet. We've been fighting a lot about the protection detail and Brody. Piling on a baby on top of all that, didn't seem like the best idea.” Dani admits, feeling a little guilty. Shelby looks on in understanding. She had fallen victim to Quinn's misplaced wrath the other day, when the senior agent felt like she was not getting a cause of death fast enough for her._

 

“ _When are you going to tell her?” Shelby asks._

 

“ _When we catch Brody and he is rotting in a federal prison cell, I promise I'll tell her then.She'll be in a better mood and won't be such a pain in the ass”Dani jokes._

 

_Shelby laughs while Dani pokes her finger into the medical examiner's chest._

 

“ _Promise me you won't tell her or anybody else on the team, until this whole Brody case is behind us?” Dani asks._

 

“ _They won't hear it from me. You have my word, Dani.” Shelby says hugging the girl.They break away from the hug._

 

“ _Good.” Dani says, relieved. The junior agent turns around and walks out of the bathroom._

 

“But it shouldn't be. Dani was an agent, she knew that she would have to lay her life on the line.” Quinn argues, walking away from the table and running her hands through her hair and startling Shelby out of her thoughts.

 

“But you're right, it is different.” Quinn sighs.

 

The medical examiner takes one last swig, before standing up, facing the blonde agent.

 

Quinn turns away from Shelby, as pools of tears form in her eyes and her face feels red, as the feeling of grief overwhelms her. It has finally hit her that Dani wasn't gone and that she was never going to see her again. She was alone, once again and there was nothing that she could do to fix it this time.

 

“Why Shelby? Why Dani and not me?” Quinn asks tearfully. The medical examiner takes her into her arms and lets her cry. _She has to know the truth. I can't keep your secret any longer Dani_ Shelby thinks to herself as she rubs the agent's back soothingly.

 

A few minutes pass before Quinn wipes the last of her tears onto the sleeve of her jacket. She takes a couple of deep breathes and composes herself, not wanting to show any more of her weakness than she already has.

 

“I may know why Dani had been a target for Brody. Or at least part of the reason why.” Shelby tells her hesitantly, biting down on her bottom lip, not trying her best not to look at Quinn.

 

“ Yeah, he was infatuated with her, Sam already told me about it.” Quinn reveals. Shelby looks on surprised, not knowing that Dani and Brody knew one another before he attacked autopsy.

 

 

“They met two years before Dani joined NCIS. They went undercover together.” Quinn continues on, looking at Shelby quizzically. “And to try to get to me. Those are the only reasons I can come up with so far.” Quinn crosses her arms and her back straightens out. “Unless there is something that you're not telling me, Shelby.”

 

“ I put a rush on Dani's blood tests and the lab techs should have them ready as soon as they get in.” Shelby says, staling as long as she can.

 

“Great. Thanks for doing that, but what does this have to do with why Brody killed her?” Quinn asks impatiently.

 

“As you know, last week Dani was feeling rather ill and she told you it was a stomach virus, correct?” Shelby asks, picking up one of the jars on the table and playing with it. Quinn's patience was wearing thin, not in the mood to play mind chess with the medical examiner.

 

“Dammit Shelby, will you spit it out already! Tell me what you know.” Quinn says forcefully.

 

Shelby turns away from the senior agent and speaks softly.

 

“Danielle was pregnant.” The medical examiner pauses and sets the jar down. “According to her, she was about six weeks along.” Shelby looked up to see the senior agent's reaction.

 

Quinn's expression was blank, with her lips in a thin line,as she tried to digest the news. It can't be true? Shelby must have made a mistake? She hadn't noticed Dani showing any signs of being pregnant. Outside of her being sick last weekend, the raven haired agent didn't have any morning sickness that she could remember.

 

“ Are you sure?” Quinn asks hollowly. Shelby turns around and stares at the broken agent.

 

“Yes.I called her doctor earlier while looking for her medical records and she confirmed the pregnancy.” the medical examiner says, with a lump in her throat. “I'm so sorry, Lucy.”

 

Quinn doesn't respond. She clenches her hands so hard, she almost feels her blood pulsating through her veins. How could she have been so stupid? Dani was pregnant and she had been going through it alone all this time. While she had been obsessed with catching Brody and making him answer for his crimes. Now she had lost the one person that had been her family for the last seven years and their baby.Dani had every right to be angry with her earlier. She had been more angry with herself.

 

“It's just a theory. Maybe he didn't know about the pregnancy and he really was targeting you.” Shelby states, trying to comfort her friend and herself. She'd like to think that she was wrong and Brody would have never shot Dani if he had he'd known about her condition.

 

Quinn shakes her head at this as the pieces come together.

 

“No, no. Him sniping Tina means he's after my people. Starting with the women.” Quinn concludes.

 

Shelby did not want to believe Quinn or her own intuition, but it would fit her opinion of the double agent. If there was anything that Brody was good at, it was detecting the weaknesses in his opponent

and using it against them. The team is Quinn's weakness and he was going to come after each of them before he killed Quinn.

 

“Then he's torturing you.” Shelby stated. “One has to wonder what made him such a sadist.”Shelby inquires more to herself.

 

Quinn sees red. She couldn't find it in her to have sympathy for the rouge agent. Not after everything that he has done to her and the way he was terrorizing her team.Quinn made a vow for herself and Dani that she was going to make sure that Brody had gotten what he deserves, a place on one of Shelby silver tables.

 

“I don't give a damn! I just want the bastard dead!” shouting as she walks across the room and storms out of the double doors, leaving the medical examiner alone.

 

Quinn made a vow to Dani and to herself that she was going to make sure that Brody had gotten what he deserves. A spot on one of Shelby's silver tables.

 

Once she was sure that the senior agent was out of site, Shelby took her cellphone off of the table and dialed the number two, hoping that the other person would pick up. Don't rain on my parade played for thirty seconds before the voicemail picked up.

 

“ _Hello, this is Rachel Barbra Berry. I am currently occupied at the moment, but if you leave a message with your name, number and contact information, I will get back to you in as soon as possible. Thank you.”_

 

“Rachel, hun, it's mom. I need to talk to you-about Brody. Please, please call me back as soon as you get this. It's important.” Shelby says, hoping that Rachel would get this message sooner rather than later.

 

She hangs up the phone and goes back to cleaning up. God help Brody if Quinn gets to him before the FBI or the rest of NCIS does.

 

* * *

 

 

**05:30 am**

**The Embassy hotel**

 

A brunette in her late twenties or early thirties, walks out of the golden double doors of the hotel lobby.She's wearing a black pants suit and a white blouse with a gun holster strapped to her hip. The black three inch heels clicked on the ground as she carried the sleeping two year old in her arms, waiting patiently for the taxi to arrive. She had overslept this morning and in her rush to get to her first day of work on time, had forgotten the little girl's baby carrier.

 

The young mother only had to wait a couple of minutes before the yellow taxi pulled up to the curb. The cab is put into park as the tall, grey haired cabbie walks around to her side of the car. He opens up the door for her.

 

“Thank you.” she says softly, trying not to disturb the sleeping little girl in her arms. The driver doesn't answer her and grunts as he closes the door.

 

“ Where are you headed to, young lady?” he asks in a gravely voice.

 

“Washington Naval Yard, sir.” she replies, chocolate brown eyes looking down at the child, brushing some of her sandy brown hair back. When the infant's curly hair is back in its place, the young mother looks up at the cabby through the mirror.

 

“ My name is not 'young lady', sir. It's Rachel Berry.” she points out with a smile, reaching out her free hand to the driver. He looks at it for a moment, rolling his eyes and huffing before turning his attention back to the road.

 

As they drive pass the hotel, Rachel sees a black SUV drive pass them, slowly. Suddenly, she feels a chill run down her spine, feeling that something was off. Her left hand lightly touches the black Sig ready to use it, if necessary. The black SUV comes to a stop and parks onto the side of the street, across from the Embassy. She tries to get a better look at the driver, but fails to see through the tinted windows. She sighs in relief as her hand goes back to the little girl's back rubbing it softly.

 

The windows of the black SUV roll down as Brody's tired, blood shot eyes stare menacingly at the departing cab. His hair fell flat and a bit of stubble had formed on his face. He reaches out to the handle of the glove compartment and pulls out his phone. He had spent the night trying to get Rachel to talk to him, to understand where he is coming from and see how unreasonable she was being.

 

 _Maybe this will get her attention._ The rogue agent thought to himself. Brody looks over the message one last time, hoping she'll answer this time.

 

I've seen you,Rachel. You can't hide from me any longer. We

need to talk.- B.

 

He presses the send button and throws the phone back into the glove compartment and closing it. Brody rolls the window back up and puts his head on the steering wheel.

 

_This will all be over very soon._ He assures himself. Starting the engine of the truck, Brody takes off in the opposite direction, preparing for what is to come.

 

 

 

 


	3. The New Arrivals

07:15 am

Evidence Garage

 

Sam rolls himself out from underneath the Black Honda and sits up, wiping his hands on the pants leg of his orange jumpsuit. He and Tina had spent the last three hours taking apart the car, looking for anything that Brody could have left behind and so far, they were coming up short. He brushes the stray hairs out of his face and looks up. His lips curl into a dopey yet satisfied looking grin as he watches Tina, who is also wearing an orange NCIS jumpsuit, bent over the trunk of the car and oblivious to his leering.

Sam had always had a special place in his heart for the goth forensic scientist, since the first time he saw her last year. He had overheard her talking animatedly with Puck, who looked like he would rather be anywhere but near Tina at the moment, about a computer game that she had recently gotten into.Sam had asked Puck earlier if Tina would have been interested in him, and all the junior agent did was throw his head back and laughed at him, saying that Tina was more or less into guys with tattoos and piercings on ever inch of their bodies and whose uniforms consisted of nothing but leather chaps. That she would definitely not be interested in some nerdy, boy band reject. Dani, who had heard part of his conversation with Puck, told Sam to ignore Puckerman like Tina did when he tried to sleep with her, and encouraged him to go for it.So, he took a chance and walked over to her and talked about his favorite parts of the game and watched Tina's brown eyes light up as they went to her lab.Afterwords, they went back to her place a few hours and spent the rest of the night getting to know each other in her black box spring coffin bed. At some point during the night, talking became unnecessary. 

Since he's transferred from Norfolk to the main headquarters, he has not been back to her coffin bed. And it wasn't for his lack of trying or loss of interest. It was because one of the boss' rules were that you never dated a coworker, even though Quinn herself had broken that rule when she married her coworker. Sam was also smart enough to know that if he ever hurt Tina, the boss would have his head on her mantle piece. So he kept things professional and friendly with the forensic scientist, but that still did not stop him from thinking about her every once and a while.

 

“Hey Evans, come take a look at this!” Tina shouts, holding something in her blue gloved hand as Sam stands up and takes a couple of steps over to the trunk. 

“I think... it's a 308. And stop staring at my ass” she adds, glaring at Sam from inside of the trunk. Sam takes the blue gloves out of his pockets and puts them on. Then he picks up the small clear jar on the messy wooden table and opens the lid. 

“Drop it.” he tells her. Tina drops the bullet into the awaiting jar. The probie takes a couple of steps back, with the jar, and continues to stare at Tina as she bends back over.

“I think I've got another one for you.” she announces from inside of the trunk, as she sees the slug tucked underneath the mat of the trunk.

Neither Tina nor Sam heard or saw a fuming Quinn come out of the elevator doors and enter the main entrance of the Evidence Garage. Her face was slightly tinted red and the dark circles under her eyes are more pronounced now than they had been before. She had spent the rest of the night going over the evidence that they had gathered,for what felt like hundredth time, preparing herself to confront the director after she was done here. She had every intention of telling Terri that she and her team were going to go after Brody, whether they were authorized to or not. In her mind, the man was guilty and she was going to make him answer for what he had done. And any evidence that they would gather after her talk with the director would be a bonus. 

Sam briefly looks back and sees Quinn on her way over to them. He backs away from Tina as quickly as he can, turning red,as the forensic scientist gets up from out of the trunk.

“Boss, we uh, we-we-we we found a .308 slug” Sam stutters, scattering to show her the evidence jar and embarrassed about nearly being caught ogling the forensic scientist.. Tina walks over Sam and places the other slug inside of the jar.

“Two, actually. They were plugged in the trunk” Tina points out. Quinn takes the jar in her hands.

“These were fired by the dirtbag in the warehouse?” Quinn asks calmly. Her hazel eyes harden into a steely gaze, looking at the slugs. She could not bring herself to say his name at the moment, afraid of taking her anger out on her team.

“Those, I found in the right side of the car. Nine mil slugs.” Tina answers. 

“ Brody missed his first shot and hit the controller with his second.” Quinn recalls, putting the pieces together. She turns her attention to Sam.

“Where were you before you took cover?” Quinn asks him.

Sam crouches down by the edge of the car, near the wheel in the same position he had been in yesterday.

“Right here.” He tells her. Quinn tilts her head and nods.

“Lopez was right. You do owe that terrorist a thank you.” Quinn deadpans as Sam stands up. 

Before she could say anything else, the grey elevator doors open as Puck strolls in, wearing a grey suit and black tie. He had taken a few minutes to change out of his clothes from the day before after he was done dealing with the Metro police.

“He didn't police his brass, again.” Puck says, handing Quinn a manilla folder. 

“Metro PD found a .308 casing in the park, next to the tracks.” Puck continues on, putting his hands in his jacket pockets. Quinn stares at the junior agent, raising one of her eyebrows at him.

“And?” Quinn asks, annoyed. Puck shrugs his shoulders at her.

“Nothing.” Puck answers, disinterestedly.

He was secretly hoping that some of his inaction would get to the boss and she would go back to being normal and slap him upside the head. Even if it was only for a second.

Quinn takes a deep breath out, trying to control herself. 

“I was waiting for you to tell me...” Quinn explains, but is interrupted by Puck.

“ To tell them to bring the evidence here ASAP?” Puck asks finishing her statement, as Tina and Sam share look at Puck in disbelief.

“ Do I really have to tell you that, Puckerman?” Quinn asks agitated, with one hand on her hip. Puck nods at her with a smile.

“ You always do.” Puck says, proudly. Quinn ignores him and begins to walk away. She turns around and looks back at Puck.

“ Tell Metro PD to..” Quinn orders, but is interrupted once again.

“ Already did, boss madame. “ Puck says with a smirk. “ Oh and the Director wants to see you in MTAC.” 

Quinn turns around and walks into the elevators, not saying anything more to the aggravating junior agent.

When they are sure that Quinn is gone, Sam and Tina surround Agent Puckerman, not believing what they had just witnessed and what Puck was trying to do and if he had a death wish. Tina crosses her arms and glares at Puck as he stands there with a satisfied smirk.

“Why are you baiting Fabray?” Tina asks accusingly. She couldn't tell if he was being extremely sweet, like he had been in their conversation before, or extremely stupid for trying to bait Quinn in her time of need.

“Trying to get her to stop being so damn nice, it's creepy.” Puck explains.

“I like her nice.” Sam says pouting, as Puck glares at him and tries to hit him in the back of the head. 

Tina walks up to the table and grabs the evidence jar. She steps in between the two bickering men, attempting to get them to behave for a few seconds as they make their way back up to her lab.

“The agency doesn't pay me enough to babysit these two.”Tina mutters to herself.

 

10:20 am

MTAC

The senior agent walks into the dark conference room that more or less resembled a movie theater. There were twelve rows of black and grey bucket seats and a big screen that took up about a quarter of the back of the room. It was where the Director and sometimes Quinn, would take video calls from generals to the CIA on whenever there was a case that required their presence. 

As Quinn walked down the steps to the front row, she noticed Director Terri Schuester sitting in the front row, with a white headset on her dirty blonde hair as her blue eyes covered in black rimmed glasses, her attention focused onto the screen.Quinn had worked with Director Schuester ever since they had both begun at NCIS ten years ago. Quinn was twenty-three at the time and Terri thirty-seven. Terri was the only person at NCIS that the senior agent had any respect for and over the years, they have come to understand each other. Even though Quinn knew that the Director thought she was more trouble than she was worth. Terri was firm, yet fair and would often reluctantly agree with Quinn's unique way of handling her cases. 

When she gets down to the last step, Quinn sits down in the open seat next to the director and crosses her ankles together. Terri watches the screen with intrigue, as a man dressed in black paces back and forth in the parking lot, not hearing the senior agent approaching.

“What have you got for me, Fabray.” Terri asks, without looking up at Quinn.

“ Brass from Brody's sniper nest. Tire tracks in Anacostia Park, where he fired a shot across the river into our forensics lab.” Quinn tells the Director. Terri turns toward Quinn and frowns.

“Isn't it a bit unusual for a sniper not to police their brass?” the Director asks. 

“Yes M'am.” Quinn replies. 

“ I've received calls from every director I know, promising to hunt down this sniper as if he'd killed one of their own.” Terri says reassuringly. 

I bet they do. Quinn says to herself, while fighting the urge to roll their eyes. She knew the only reason the other agencies wanted to help was to cover their own asses. It wouldn't look good for any of them, especially the CIA,if they had to explain how they let a Rouge Mossad Agent kill one of another agency's people.

“CIA might be the most help. Brody Weston was one of their moles.” Quinn recommends. 

After a few minutes of silence, Director Schuester turns her head and looks in the direction of the senior agent.

“ I've endorsed your recommendation to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Special Agent McKenzie.” Terri tells her. 

Agent Fabray came to see her yesterday, before Terri went home for the night after Agent McKenzie was killed, and asked her about giving the award to the fallen agent to commend her sacrifice and work with the team over her last seven years at the agency. It had only taken Director Schuester ten minutes to decide and sign off on the necessary paperwork.

“ Thank you, m'am.” Quinn says quietly, looking down at her hands. The Director turns her head facing forward once again, getting back to the case.

“ According to your after-action report, no one actually saw the sniper who killed Agent McKenzie.” Terri states.

“ Brody was on a rooftop six hundred meters away.” Quinn explains.

“ Extraordinary shot.” Terri says, mildly impressed.

“No, M'am. Not exactly.” Quinn says disinterested and looks away.

“You were a Sniper with the Corps, weren't you Fabray?” Terri asks.

“ Two tours.” Quinn confirms with a small smile. 

Quinn had become one of the first few women to pass through to serve as a sniper in the Marines when the United States opened up combat positions to women on the front lines. She had been at the top of her class and completed two tours before being honorably discharged after her contract was up and joining NCIS. 

“ Desert Storm?” Director Schuester jokes with Agent Fabray shaking her head in the negative.

“I'm not that old,m'am.” the agent states quietly, feigning offense. “Kuwait and Kabul.”

The Director shrugs her shoulders and chuckles.

“ Hm, thought you were older. My mistake.” the Director deadpans as her lips curve into a smirk. Sometimes she forgets that Quinn is only thirty three years old, as the senior agent seemed to be too wise and yet too young to be as cynical as she is.

The sound of beeping breaks the director and her young charge out of their banter as one of the computer techs turns around, headset in place, staring at the screen before taking the image and projecting it onto the big screen behind him. On the screen, there were two men, who were agents of Mossad, were dressed in black standing by a blue van. The taller of the two men was standing there, talking into an earpiece

“The target vehicle is approaching.We have a hard lock.” The man says, turning back around and going back to his computer. The woman next to him turns around and addresses the director.

“ Target confirmed. Engage.” she says, clicking on something on the screen. She presses down on the enter button. “ Weapon free.”

The Mossad agents run away from the van as the missile hits the trunk of the van, engulfing it in flames. The room erupts into applause as the techs on the floor and the other agents present stand up to leave the room.

Director Schuester and Agent Fabray remain sitting as the room clears out, leaving the director alone with the team leader.

“Now where was I?” Director Schuester wonders, looking at Quinn.

“ You were avoiding using Brody's name and sniper in the same sentence, m'am.” Quinn says bitterly, as they watched the others walk to the doorway and walk out of MTAC. 

Terri sighs, trying to keep her own temper in check and tries to reason with the stubborn woman in front of her.

“ Look, your anger is understandable Quinn.” Terri says sympathetically. “You lost one of your own agents and now you want payback.” 

“No m'am.” Quinn denies, even though senior agent would love nothing more than to see Brody downstairs on one of Shelby's tables.

“Unfortunately, it's a passion I can't afford.” Terri says nonchalantly. Quinn raises her eyebrow at her the director, not expecting her boss to be so candid with her answer. 

Terri would have loved nothing more than to send Quinn and the remaining members of her team out on a witch hunt to bring back the former Mossad agent back in a body bag. Unfortunately, it would have been career suicide to authorize such a mission, especially with relations between Mossad and their agency being as strained as they were at the moment.

“Do you honestly think that Weston had nothing to do with Dani's death?” Quinn asks softly after a few moments of silence. 

“ No. But there are those out there who do.” the Director says frankly, referring to the CIA. 

The vultures there had been hounding the director all morning, trying to make a case for the rogue agent's innocence. They had even tried to convince her to drop the investigation all together and have Dr. Corcoran rule Danielle's death an accidental death. The director was having none of it and politely told the agency that her best people were looking into the matter, before promptly hanging up afterwards. 

“ Those who ran him.” Quinn says incredulously, not believing what she was hearing. “ Those who thought they had the Holy Grail of moles!” 

“Those people are covering their asses right now!” Quinn finishes angrily. 

“Make sure that you have yours cover when you bring him in, Fabray.” Terri sternly warns, knowing that the investigation was about to turn ugly on all sides real fast.

“Won't be a problem, director. Because I don't plan on bringing him in.” Quinn says mysteriously.

The director glares at the senior agent, a feeling of unease suddenly coming over her. Quinn crosses her arms and stares back at her boss defiantly. 

“ C'est la vie.” Terri says indifferently as she stands up and brushes off the dust on her black skirt.  
“ You're not my problem anymore, Quinn.” She points toward the agent, who remained in her seat.

“ You're firing me, m'am?” Quinn asks, crossing one of her legs over the other, getting comfortable.

“I've been offered a Deputy Director's position at Homeland Security. As of five minutes ago, I ceased being your boss.” Terri answers simply as she stands up the stairs and into the isle way. Quinn stands up and follows behind her.

“You'd really leave NCIS, m'am?” Quinn asks.

Terri turns around at the question, facing Quinn.

“ Well, the agency could certainly use some younger blood.” Terri answers as she approaches the door. 

“Who would be replacing you, m'am? Because I won't to do it!” Quinn tells her. Quinn hated the suits and the last thing the senior agent ever wanted to be was a suit. Not like she would have had the job long anyway.Terri rolls her eyes and as she opens the door. 

When she does, a man with curly brown hair, who towered a little bit over the director, stands up from his spot in the back of the room,making his presence known. He brushes off the dust wearing a nicely tailored black suit without the jacket and. He's wearing a black vest with the buttons perfectly in place and the sleeves of the white blouse he had on underneath rolled up to his elbow. 

Quinn couldn't see the face of her new boss well because of the dim lighting in the room, but that did not stop her from feeling that there was something familiar about the man that she could not place at the moment.

“Quinn, as much as I like you, I wouldn't shoot NCIS in the head like that.” Terri laughs as she hands the folders in her hand over to the man. 

“She's your problem now, Director.” Terri warns the man as she walks out of MTAC one last time. 

Quinn walks up the isle way and stops as the man's face comes into view. Hazel eyes widen in horror as her new boss' brown eyes smirk, highly amused at being able to catch the stoic agent off guard for once.

“Why hello, Quinnie. Shall we skip the “long time no see, you haven't changed a bit” schtick and move on to the main event?” the man asks her as she approaches him. 

“Of course we can, St. James. Why should we start lying to each other now?” Quinn answers with her own smirk, finally recovered from her earlier state of shock. 

Quinn and Jesse have known each other since their sophomore year at Lima High School. Quinn, rather reluctantly, joined the school's glee club after taking the fall for her friends at the time, the Skanks, for setting the Glee club's pianos on fire. Jesse, who was the male lead of the club and basically made all the decisions for the winning show choir, had deemed her tremulous alto acceptable enough to be his female lead. The last one that the glee club had quit because of the amount of pressure Jesse had put on her. Being the leads, they were forced to spend time together in school and outside of school, with Jesse pushing her to her vocal and patience limits constantly. 

Over the next year, Quinn found out that Jesse wasn't as bad as she thought he would be, in spite of his many flaws and unstoppable ego, Jesse turned out to be a good friend to her when he wanted to be. He let her stay at his place, whenever Quinn and her usually drunk father would fight. Jesse held Quinn as she cried after coming out to him at their junior prom, even after having dated for the last six months. He even made sure that his father made a show of recording the both of them at graduation because Russell refused to attend. 

They kept in touch with one another with the occasional email and text message after high school. But Quinn found it hard to keep in touch, not knowing where she was going to be stationed next. By the time Quinn's contract with the Marines ended, she had lost all contact with her best friend.

It wasn't until Quinn's first day at NCIS that she saw Jesse for the first time since high school ended. She had been called into Director Schuester's office to find the boy smirking at her, as the director announced that he was going to be her new partner. Afterwords, Jesse spent the night explaining in great detail, dramatics and all, about how after his first year at NYU he abandoned his dreams to be on stage and discovered his new dream of becoming an NCIS agent and eventually the position as director of the agency. 

For three years, under the guidance of their boss Sue Sylvester, Jesse and Quinn traveled all over the globe as undercover NCIS agents. They became two of Sylvester's best probies and in a short amount of time, received many accolades and commendations that caught the attention of the higher ups of the agency. When Agent Sylvester announced her retirement, Quinn was the first in line for taking her position. Shortly after, Jesse was offered a chance to lead his own team in Paris that would help him move up in the ranks of the agency. He accepted the position without a second thought.

Not wanting to lose contact with his friend, Jesse occasionally makes the trip back to DC to check on Quinn. He was there to give Quinn away at a wedding that he didn't think would happen. 

The last time the senior agent had seen the field operative was during his brief two day stint in DC before he was due in Tel Aviv on assignment. He had barged in at 3 am, nearly missing the bat that Quinn had swung at his head, as he used their spare key to get inside of the house. Jesse laid around on the couch all day and left his things everywhere for Dani or herself to pick up. He had used all of her wife's hair products and shower gel. For a moment, Quinn thought that she would need to put her demanding friend into witness protection before Dani had gotten a hold of him. The morning that Jesse was scheduled to leave, he woke up to find all of his things packed neatly at the door, with a taxi waiting outside.

“Will taking orders from me be a problem for you Fabray?” Jesse challenges her, falling into step with Quinn as they exit MTAC.

“As a Director, No.” Quinn tells him as they walk down the busy hallway. “But as my dramatic, arrogant and overly demanding sometimes best friend, possibly.” 

Quinn turns around and walks away as Jesse stands there confused. Once he realizes that she is not next to him anymore, he speed walks, catching up to her.

“Lucy...” he says sternly.

“Kidding Jesse, you were a damned good agent.Although your undercover work was a bit sloppy and pedestrian” Quinn adds, fighting back a smile. 

“ Maybe if my partner that was more awe inspiring than the one I got, my performances would have been better.” Jesse bites back, chuckling.

“ Whatever you say Director.” Quinn says as they come to a stop underneath the stairwell.

Wanting to get back to the matter at hand, Jesse's expression turns serious as he prepares to tell her what his bosses have told him. The director decided to wait until he could get her alone to ask her about Dani, not wanting to put the closed off agent on the spot.

“ You do realize that you and your team have no physical evidence linking Brody with the shootings?” Jesse asks her carefully. Hazel eyes glare at her friend as he does not give her a chance to answer. “No wonder agencies abroad have their doubts.”

“The bastard has killed one of my people and he's after the rest!” the team leader tells him forcefully. Jesse takes a step back,as Quinn takes a step forward, getting into his face. She looks the mildly intimidated director into the eyes and points a finger at his chest. “ And I'll tell you something right now. No suit with a tight sphincter is getting in my, way.” Quinn steps away from him and walks away from the stairs.

“And that includes you, Jesse.” Quinn finishes, waiting on the director. Puffing up, Jesse strides forward, glaring at Quinn.

“Special Agent Fabray. On the job, it's “Director St. James” or “sir”.” the director commands, feeling the need to remind the angry agent of who she was talking to. He may have been her friend, but he would not let Quinn or any of his other agents walk all over him, especially on the job.

Quinn raises a perfectly sculpted eyebrow at him. 

“Okay, and what about when we're not on the job? May I refer to you as Jesse St. Butt head?”Quinn asks deviously.

“Sure. If you and your team enjoy being assigned to some hell hole in the desert for the remainder of my stint as director. Then yes, you may call me that.” Jesse deadpans.

“That's too bad. It was one of the nicknames from high school that I enjoyed.” Quinn banters back as Jesse sighs, as his hands rub the temples of his forehead.

 

“Don't make this situation anymore difficult than it already is, Quinnie.” Jesse tells her. As they reach the bullpen.

“Sorry Director, won't happen again.” Quinn promises. 

The senior agent and director stop at her desk as Quinn grabs her brown messenger bag and keys. They notice a focused Puckerman staring a hole into his computer as the agent, not really wanting to know what he was looking at.

“Just where do you think you're going?” Jesse asks, looking down at his watch. “Last time I checked, you still have seven hours worth of work to do.”

“ Have to change my clothes. We can talk on the way to our... I mean, my house.” Quinn tells him, forgetting for a moment that it was not her and Dani's house anymore. “And I also have to check in on Jethro. We can talk on the way to my house.”

Jesse walks further into the bullpen and lightly leans on Sam's desk.

“You still have that demon? I thought you had him put to sleep? ” Jesse asks, a little frightened. Jethro and Jesse had a complicated relationship with one another. No matter how hard Jesse tries to be nice to the dog, Jethro always found a reason to torture him whenever he visited Dani and Quinn.

“And you wonder why he doesn't like you.” Quinn says with smile as she closes her desk drawer. Jethro will certainly be excited to have his chew toy back, permanently. The agent snickers to herself.

Quinn turns her attention to Puck, who looks up at his boss and casts a curious glance towards the new guy?

“Who the hell is the chipmunk in the suit?” Puck asks her, pointing towards Jesse.

“Your new boss.” Jesse says for her, grinning as Puck straightens up in his seat.

Ignoring their scene, Quinn turns to Puck to get an update on the case.

“ Puck, where are we?” Quinn asks, standing in front of his desk.

“ Evans and Tina are working firearms analysis. I'm matching... tire tracks to the vehicle.” the junior agent informs her, stumbling at the mention of Brody's car.

“No one's to leave the building. Evan's is on protection detail with Tina. We'll be back in an hour.” Quinn orders as she and Jesse quickly walk away from the bullpen and to the elevator.

 

01:20 pm

Bullpen

 

It had been twenty minutes since the boss had taken off with the new director and Puck had been exhausted.Running on two hours of sleep, he had manage to match the tire tracks found on the ground to the tires of the black Honda. The junior agent sets his head down on the desk and is planning on resting his eyes until the boss showed up again. He closes his eyes as thoughts of the waitress who served him coffee downstairs occupied his racing thoughts.

“ Your mother should have washed your mind out with soap.” the raspy voice of a woman chastising him, causing him to lift his head.

As Puck's vision clears and the shock wears off as he smirks as he looks up at the welcoming site before him. Agent McKenzie amazing long legs were two feet in front of his face as she sat on his desk. He looks up, he sees that she is wearing a red, black and white cheerleading uniform with her brunette locks tied up in a high pony tail.It reminded him of a photo that he had seen of Dani in high school, during her days as head cheerleader. She has her arms crossed over herself protectively and her eyes narrowed as she glared at his obvious leering.

“ You're in the middle of trying to bust Brody for my murder and all you can think about is having a nooner with the poor waitress you harass every morning in nothing but her work apron?” Dani asks in disbelief.

“Was not.” Puck says petulantly.

“Was too, Puck.” the cheerleader replies. “ I've always known what you were thinking, Puckerman.”

Puck continues to leer at her, as she crosses one of her legs over the other, almost hypnotically. 

“ Puck?” she asks, trying to get his attention. “What are you up to?”

Agent McKenzie's green eyes widen scandalized as she notices Agent Puckerman's brown eyes darken to a shade of black.

“ Puck?! I don't believe you!” Dani shouts at him, hitting his arm in the process. “I just died and you're having sexual fantasies?”

Puck leans back into his chair and puts his hands on his mohawk. He crosses his ankles together and his lips form into a lazy smile.

“Can't help it.” Puck says, winking at her. 

He continues to smile at her, relishing in the fact that even in death, he still could get the last word into their disagreements. 

“Puckerman!” Dani says, as her frustration begins to get to her.

“Sometimes I used to picture you naked” the junior agent added in for extra measure.

Suddenly, a high pitch scream echoes all over the room as he laughs at his dead friend's antics. 

Agent Puckerman was too caught up in his teasing of Agent McKenzie, that he did not hear the sounds of small of pitter pattering feet or the clicking of black Jimmy Choo heels come to a halt at his desk. The young woman stops and puts the hand that was not holding the infant's hand on her hip and stares at the occupied agent curiously.

“Having phone sex?” the brunette asks, full lips forming into a smirk.

Puck stumbles out of his chair a bit at the interruption and picks up the phone, pretending to be busy on a call.

“ Phone sex? Uh no. Charades.” Puck stumbles out his excuse quickly. He looks down and notices the small hand of a girl, who wasn't tall enough to reach the top of the desk, messing with the cup of pens on his desk and watches as the cup falls to the ground.

“ Charades? Like a..” the woman asks as she picks up the girl and places it on her hip.

“Have you ever played before?” Puck asks, giving her a weird look.

“I've never done it on the phone.” the brunette says, looking at the junior agent smugly, while he pretends to clear his throat.

“ Yeah, my partner and I were coming up with quotes for Saturday night.” Puck lies easily.

“ You play charades? On a Saturday night?” the young mother asks, not believing him.

“To kill time before I go out for the night.” He says as he sits up putting his leg on the other leg. “Now, who are and the little cutie in your hands over there?” Puck asks her pointing to the girl in her arms. He notices the little girl begin to squirm in the woman's arms. The agent thought that the kid was cute and that it was a shame her hot mom seemed a little uptight. She would have been perfect to take home to his mom and sister back in Baltimore.

 

“Special Agent Rachel Berry. CIA and Mossad liaison.” Rachel says formally as she pulls out her white and blue badge, handing it over to Puck. He holds the badge into the light, checking to see that it's not forged, before he hands it back to her. 

“ And the little one's name is Elizabeth Berry. She's my daughter.” the CIA agent introduces her as the girl hides into her mother's neck and coos.“She's a little shy around strangers.” 

Puck smiles at the sight before him. If he didn't have his badass reputation to protect around the office, he would have told her that.His eyes widen suddenly as he remembers part of what the woman has said.

“You're Israeli?” Puck exclaims, excited to meet one of his people. Rachel chuckles at him, while trying to balance Beth.

“Not exactly. A Dual citizenship, to be precise. My father, Hiram Berry, works as the Assistant Director of Mossad under Eli David.” Rachel explains. 

“And judging by your reaction just now and the star of David hackey sack on your desk, would I be right in assuming that you are Jewish as well?” she asks him, pointing to the white and blue hackey sack.

“Hell yeah! The second to last person in temple every other Saturday, when we're not working a case.” Puck tells her as he stands up and gives her a high five. Rachel reluctantly slaps his hand back, not wanting him to feel bad if she didn't.

Puck sits back down and sags his shoulders, feeling a little more relaxed around the woman.

“ What can I do for you Ms. Berry?” the junior agent asks.

“ Nothing.” Rachel says simply, walking away from his desk. “ I'm here to see Special Agent Fabray.”

“How do you know that I'm not Special Agent Fabray?” Puck asks, wanting to mess with her a bit. 

 

Rachel sits over at the desk with nothing on it and sits in the black chair. She leans back in it as her grip on her daughter loosens and the little girl climbs on top of her mother, playing with her brunette locks.

“One, I was told by my superior officers that Special Agent Fabray was a woman.” Rachel states a matter of fact way. “Two, you don't seem as intimidating as I've heard from colleagues that have the misfortune of working with Special Agent Fabray.” 

“ And three, your name plate says 'Special Agent Noah Puckerman' does it not?” Rachel asks him, smugly, while pointing a perfectly manicured finger to the plate as Puck looks down at it before picking it up.

Damn, she's good. Puck says to himself.

“I was only joking Ms. Berry.” Puck chuckles, putting the plate back where it belongs. 

“ Are you sure there is nothing that I can do for you?” the junior agent asks again. 

“I'm positive.” Rachel says, flinching a little as the girl pulls on her hair.

The room is silent for a few minutes, as the sounds of Beth cooing fill the room. Puck picks the hackey sack up and twirls it around in his hands.

“I'm sorry that we got off on the wrong foot earlier, m'am.” the mohawked agent apologizes. “ I wasn't playing charades. I've recently lost my partner and I was just thinking about her.” He looks down at his desk.

Rachel looks on at Noah sympathetically, knowing what it's like to lose a loved one and while still caring on with work. 

“I'm sorry for your loss. Were you together long?” Rachel asks.

 

“The last seven years.She was my first.” Puck says sadly looking down.

“You must be a very strong person to go to work after losing someone very close to you?” Rachel says 

“Yeah, well somebody has to find her....wait, what did you just say?” he asks looking up at her, catching her misunderstanding.

“Your lover? You said you lost your partner, I assumed you were talking about your girlfriend?” Rachel says obviously. 

Puck, not being able to help himself, holds onto his stomach and laughs hysterically.

“ Whoa, slow down there. Dani wasn't my girlfriend, she was my partner here at NCIS.” Puck corrects her after he catches his breath. “Special Agent McKenzie.”

“But you said that she was your first?” Rachel says as Beth wraps her arms around her shoulder.

“I meant my first probie. When Dani started at the agency, Quinn paired me up with her. And until Special Agent Lopez, another one of our team members,came along four years later she was my probie.” Puck explains to her as he picks up the file that he was looking at. “Now Agent fish lips, I mean Special Agent Evans, is my probie.”

Rachel still didn't understand what Special Agent Puckerman is talking about or the dynamics of this clearly dysfunctional team. And at the moment she did not have time to care. Originally, the CIA agent had requested a transfer to NCIS to get her and Beth as far away from New York, and the little girl's father, as possible. She had heard from a friend that worked with the director at NCIS from time time time, that the agency would have an opening soon. One of their agents had planned on taking a leave of absence. She had expected to transition into her new position smoothly until she received a call from her boss saying that she was to report to NCIS headquarters and convince the agent leading Brody's case to not take any action against their operative until the CIA does their own independent investigation. He was still a valuable asset in the infiltration of Hamas, in spite of how questionable his 

 

actions have become as of late. Since Rachel was not an official member of NCIS yet, she was still under orders of the CIA and her boss. The way things seemed to be going now, Rachel was fully expecting the NCIS director to reconsider her transfer request to the agency.

Rachel decided to make a note of everything that Puck was telling her for when she officially began her tenure at NCIS.

“Besides, Agent Fabray would have my balls in a blender if I'd ever made a move on Agent McKenzie.” Puck mutters quietly to himself, inadvertently breaking Rachel out of her thoughts.

“And why is that?” Rachel asks curiously. Puck looks at her for a moment, shaking his head.

“Nothing. Ms. Berry.Now, you can sit her and slouch in that chair with your adorable kid in your lap for an hour if you'd like. Or you can tell me what it is that you need and maybe I can help?” Puck asks one last time, suddenly willing to do anything to get the woman out of there and back to work.

Rachel sits up and looks directly at Puck, adjusting a bored and sleepy Beth into her lap.

“You can't help me Noah. Because I'm here to stop Special Agent Fabray from killing a Mossad officer.” Rachel says formally.

Puck stops what he is doing he is doing, glaring at the CIA operative.

“Brody Weston.” the junior agent says strained.

“Yes, that is correct.” Rachel affirms. Puck looks at her for a moment longer before going back to his computer screen.

“I'd tell you good luck, but I want the...” Puck stops as he looks over at Beth. “ Bastard dead too.” he finishes off in a low voice, mindful of the sleeping little girl in the room.

 

Suddenly feeling uncomfortable again with her presence, the junior agent looks away from the computer and writes something down. 

Rachel looks at him briefly, stunned that he would say anything like that about a fellow agent. If he felt that way about Brody, then she could only imagine how his boss would feel about her request to spare his life.Rachel looks away from him and stares down at her sleeping little girl. 

For Beth's sake, I hope I can talk some sense into Agent Fabray. Rachel says to herself.

That's one battle you're going to lose Berry. Puck silently thinks to himself.  
01:40 pm  
The Fabray house

Jesse walks down the steps the steps of the basement, looking for the senior agent, who disappeared as soon as they walked into the door. He had managed to raid her fridge, finding a few slices of left over pizza, before a low growling caught his attention. Jethro, was standing right behind him, waiting on the director to make the slightest of movements before he would maul him, or at least that's what Jesse told himself. Fortunately, the curly haired man was able to maneuver himself away from the beast to the other side of the kitchen island and to the doors of the basement. 

The new director knew that whenever Quinn was having a rough day or just needed to get away from the world, you would most likely find her either developing photographs from one of her vintage cameras or building boats in her basement. Half of the room was set up like a dark room, while the other half of the room was where her work table and tools were. He never understood his friend's hobby and secretly, he always thought the building boats thing was a front for her being a serial killer.

As he heads down to the bottom of the stairs, he sees the outline of an unfinished boat and Quinn sitting on a grey stool staring at it. He also notices that Quinn was still in the same clothes that she had on this morning. 

 

“Is this the same boat that you've been working on for the last nineteen years, Fabray?” Jesses asks as he walks up to her. “Thought you would have had that thing finished by now.”

“It's a different boat.”Quinn explains, picking the black mug next to her and taking a drink out of it.

The director pulls the other stool from underneath the table and wipes off the bits of sawdust he sees on it. When it was cleaned to his liking, he carefully sits down on the stool.

“What happened to the first boat?” Jesses inquires curiously, while trying to get more comfortable on the stool

The senior agent looks at him, a mischievous gleam appears in her eyes, before setting the mug back down, turning towards him.

“ Burned him.” she tells him.

“Why? As I recall you were so obsessed with finishing the damn thing....” he begins to ask but stops, raising his eyebrows at her. 

“You named the boat after your father, didn't you?” he asks, not expecting an answer while Quinn stands up and pushes the stool back into her work bench. She turns the overhead light off, leaving her friend in the dark. 

Quinn thinks back to the time her father Russell had got her started in building her boat.It was also one of the many failed attempts For the first few months, all either one of them could talk about when they were around each other was that boat.That ended when Russell made partner at the law firm he worked at.His schedule became too busy and ended up abandoning the boat and Quinn completely. Quinn continued to work on the boat by herself, sometimes falling asleep in the basement working on it, before Russell kicked her out of his house senior year .Before Quinn went to boot camp, her mother worked something out with Jesse's family and they agreed to keep it at their place, until Quinn bought her own and had it shipped here. 

 

She finally finished the small boat around the time she had proposed to Dani. They had made plans to take the boat out for a weekend, if they could find time away from the job or figure out how they were going to get it out of the basement.

“Any particular reason why you would name your boat after him?” Jesses asks, standing up and walking over to the outline of the boat. Quinn visibly tenses,giving her friend a pointed glare.

“You know damn well why I did it.” she tells him.

The weekend before Dani and Quinn were supposed to get married, Russell called at the last minute declining the invitation. At the time, her relationship with him had become better since Russell reached out to her after becoming sober. But in the end, the blonde knew that her father still had a problem with her being interested in women. That he still held on to the belief that Quinn would come to her senses and find a good Christian man to have good Christian children with. He sent the newlyweds a check to make up for his absence, which Quinn burned along with the boat during their reception. She has not talked to him since and as far as Quinn was concerned, Russell was dead to her.

Deciding that now would be a good as good time as any, to bring up the elephant in the room, he takes a deep breath and puts his hand on her shoulder.

“How are you really holding up? And don't give me that Marine bullshit you give to everybody else.” Jesse asks calmly. 

“I don't know.” Quinn tells him honestly, running a hand through her hair.

So much has happened in the last day or so, that the senior agent has not had the opportunity to process it all. There was a part of her that was still in denial and expected Dani, with their unborn baby, to walk through the door and plop down on the couch, complaining about the day they've had and how hard  
she's trying to make sure that Evans isn't too corrupted by Lopez and Puckerman. 

Noticing that the agent seemed to be spacing out, he takes the opportunity to bring up her clothes.

 

“You haven't changed.” he points out, as she looks at him confused.

“You're still wearing the same clothes that you were wearing this morning. Isn't that why we came back here?” Jesse asks gently.

“I was, until I got to our bedroom door.” Quinn remembers. “ I had my hand on the door knob and for some reason, I just couldn't bring myself to go in there. Not now at least.”

“Oh Quinnie...” Jesse starts to say, but is interrupted by the blonde.

“She was pregnant.” Quinn states. “For six fucking weeks she was pregnant and I had no clue, because I was too busy hunting down that bastard to care about anything else and now he's after the rest of my people!” She hits part of the framing of her boat as Jesse is left speechless. He tries to pull his ailing friend into a hug, but she pushes him away.

“Don't.” the senior agent commands and Jesse takes a step backward. 

“It's all my fault that she and our unborn baby are gone. He was after me and once again I let someone I love pay for my mistakes.” Quinn says hopelessly, remembering that this was not the first time something like this has happened. 

“ And I plan on fixing that when the moment I get a hold of Weston.” Quinn says determined.

“And if I were still a field op, I would be all for helping you find the son of a bitch and finding the right arrangement for his head on your fireplace.” Jesse tries to reason with her. “But as your boss, that's not going to happen.”

“We both know that he's guilty!” Quinn argues.

“Circumstantially he may be!” the director counters. “ And until you or your team can provide proof beyond a reason of a doubt or positively prove that it was Brody who fired the gun or was in that office building, I can't let you go all Kill Bill on Weston!” 

Jesse sits down on the stool he left out as neither one of them say nothing else to one another. Quinn is still fuming and swears that she'll find a way around Jesse and the other agencies protecting Brody. While the new director is worried about his friend's state of mind. 

Maybe it would be best if I just pulled her off the case altogether. Force her to take some vacation time, get her away from DC. Jesse contemplates.

A few moments pass before Jesse breaks the silent standoff he was currently engaged in with Quinn.

“And besides, I don't want to deal with two pissed off CIA and Mossad directors.” Jesse tells her. “At least not on my first day on the job” He smiles.

“Have you ever seen Eli David angry? Let me tell you, it's not a pleasant site to behold.” he adds, trying to get her to smile. It works as Quinn looks at him and chuckles.

“It's the price you pay for becoming a suit.” the blonde agent tells him.

Jesse shrugs his shoulders as he puts his feet back on top of the wood table.

“I thought it was going to be easier than risking my ass, breaking every other bone in my body and getting shot at every week until retire.” the former agent says dramatically.

Quinn just shakes her head and laughs at her friend's antics. Jesse may have calmed down some of his diva like tendencies since joining NCIS. But Jesse will always be Jesse and nothing could change that. The blonde still doesn't know why she keeps him around.

 

“ So what is your first assignment as the new suit? Going over case files? Dinners with some foreign diplomats and dignitaries? A conference call with the President?” Quinn asks jokingly.

“None of those actually.” He says with a smirk, as he gets off the stool and walks over to the stairs. “For your information, I have a dinner date with the executives of CBS,who happen to be paying for everything by the way.”

“For what? Your coming out party?” Quinn asks impishly. 

“You wish.” Jesse banters back. “I'm due on the early morning show tomorrow, to debrief the hosts on Dani's case and inform the public that Brody is wanted for questioning at NCIS.” Quinn freezes for a moment.

“You can't do that, Jesse.” Quinn begs him.

“Excuse me?” Jesse says, crossing his arms in front of him.

“Brody is targeting everyone that I care about, starting with the women. He's a chauvinist and unpredictable. Giving him a heads up that he's a possible suspect will only encourage him to make his next attack on my team bigger and with more fatalities.” Quinn reasons. 

Frustrated, Jesse rubs his temples and sighs.

“That maybe true, but the people who you need to convince that Brody is the sniper don't believe you. And my appearance on the show could give you more credibility than you have now.” Jesse counters. 

Terri had debriefed him the moment that he walked into the door. She told him that the CIA thinks that Quinn is on a self righteous witch hunt. They threatened to block everyone of Special Agent Fabray's trail of evidence if Terri did not step in and stop her. It made him curious as to why that agency was working so hard to protect a rogue agent and determined to protect his best friend in any way that he could,without overstepping his boundaries as Director.

 

“Do you trust, St. James?” Quinn asks.

“Professionally yes, personally it depends on the day.” Jesse answers easily.

“In all the years that we have know each other, have you ever had any reason to doubt me?” the senior agent asks. It doesn't take long for the director to come up with an answer.

“Never.” he says with conviction. Quinn crosses her arms over her chest.

“Well then why are you doubting me now?” she asks. 

“ Because,I need to establish a good working relationship with these people and I can't base an investigation on your gut.” the director states.

“Who are you going to side with, Jesse, those people or me?” Quinn asks, as an ultimatum. No matter what the new director, her best friend,says, she was going to continue on with the investigation. 

Jesse smiles at Quinn and copies her stance. There was not a doubt in his mind who would win that argument.

“Ask me a tough question Fabray.” Jesse states cockily. Quinn shakes her head and walks around him, heading upstairs.

“Always the politician, St. James” she mutters on the way up, with Jesse close behind.


	4. Chapter 4

2:30 pm

Bullpen

 

A frustrated Agent Lopez stomps out of the elevator doors, with one hand clutching onto a tall cup of coffee. While the other one contained the greasiest burgers and fries that the chef at the little diner she stopped at on the way back to work could come up with. It had been on of the longest and most draining work days that the agent had ever experienced throughout her four years at the agency. That included all of the times she was forced to go undercover with Puckerman.

She had spent the better part of five hours, after her partner's murder, working with DC's Metro PD trying to collect every piece of evidence they could find. Unfortunately, the cops that she had to work with nearly contaminated the crime scene on several occasions, constantly asked her whether a piece of evidence would be relevant or not and generally got on her last nerve. 

Sam and Puck left for headquarters after a while, leaving her in charge of clean up. When the idiots at Metro finally got everything processed and ready to go to back to the evidence room, Tina's lab gets shot into. Santana had to spend an additional five hours with them outside of the lab and in the surrounding area within a ten mile radius, trying to secure the crime scene and making sure they had all of Brody's brasses. Another NCIS agent came in and thankfully relieved her from her torment. She went back to headquarters to her desk, only to spend three hours answering phone calls and tracking down and confirming the fake tips about Brody's SUV only to come up empty. 

An hour later, she slammed the phone down on the base and put her hand on her temples. She'd had enough of the constant run around from the cops, whose tips from the bolo she had put on Brody's car, came up empty. The junior agent came up with the idea of looking through Brody's personnel file for an address here in the states, only to find her security clearance was not enough. She had been arguing with a friend at their rival agency, only to be told that no one at NCIS was to have access to Brody's files. 

Santana stood up from her desk to announce her departure, only to find that there was nobody around. She picked up her leather jacket and big matching purse, and stomped her way over to the doors.

It was only when she walked into the door of her one bedroom apartment, that the brunette agent had allowed herself to break down. Tears streamed down her face as she slammed her fist down on the door of her apartment in anguish over the death of her partner.She and Dani were not the best of friends starting out, but she was still her mentor and partner. Over the last year or so, Dani had become some what of a friend to her and the closest thing to a big sister Santana was ever going to have. And she didn't know what to do, now that the other agent was gone. 

There was a part of her that feels guilty for not being able to save her partner, in spite of the many times that her mentor had saved her ass. Santana couldn't even go down there and see Dani's body even though everyone else, with the exception of Sam, had. The agent put her head in her hands and closed her eyes, hoping that when she awakened, this would all be a bad dream.

Thirty minutes later Santana opened her eyes and sat up from her position on the floor. Her eyes landed on a framed picture of the team at Tina's goth friends horrible gig from a few months ago.Puck had his tongue out and had a terrified Sam in a head lock. While she and Tina had their arms draped lightly around one another. Quinn and Dani were on the other side of the wrestling boys, as Dani had her body pressed closely to Quinn while the boss had her arm wrapped tightly around Dani. It had been one of the worst concerts she had been to and it turns out the team's antics and Quinn's constant head slapping had been more entertaining than the actual show.

Her thoughts suddenly turned to Agent Fabray .She couldn't imagine how her boss was handling this, or not handling it, at all right now and it made her feel a little bad. Fabray may have been the spawn of the devil in Santana's eyes, but Santana knew that if she was feeling as guilty as she was right now, then her boss must be kicking her own ass ten times worse than anyone on the team.

On her way back to work, after making a quick stop to her favorite diner, Santana had made a resolution to try and be civil to her co-workers and actually do what the boss had asked her to do with no argument, at least until they caught Brody. And as a piece offering, she bought food for the boys and a black coffee for the boss, just the way she likes it.

As she approached the entrance to their bullpen, something felt off to the junior agent. She walks up to the entrance of the bullpen and suddenly comes to a halt. She turns to see Puck looking interested in something on Dani's empty desk. When Santana walks a little further into the entrance of the pen, she freezes at what she sees in her partner's area.

A somewhat attractive, fashionably challenged woman, wearing a white blouse that clung to her tiny stature,bouncing a laughing mini me on her black skirt cladded lap and looked like she was getting way too comfortable in Dani's chair. 

The agent felt a vein in her head pound a little and her teeth clench, as Puck just sat there and seemed to do nothing to get this woman out of her friend's desk. He even looked to be entertaining the woman and her child. Santana marches over there to them and takes action put a stop to whatever Puck was up to with this woman.

Puck, who had just finished going through their last dead end lead, was curious to know more about the CIA operative. In spite of his many attempts at getting dirt on Agent Berry, she had refused to answer any of his more personal questions. Instead, she had flipped it around on him and offered to guess all of the personal details that she knew about the junior agent. If Rachel was wrong, then she had to tell him something about herself that he wouldn't find in her personnel file.

“Let's see. Born and raised in Baltimore to a lower middle class family, consisting of yourself, your mother and a little sister? ” Rachel says, as he nods in the affirmative. “Your father abandoned your family and became successful in the New York stock market?” Puck rolls his eyes and nods. His father was always a sore subject for the mohawked agent. The less he talked about him, the less he would have to dwell on why the deadbeat felt the need to abandon he and his mother.

 

“You were kicked out of two Baltimore public high schools for running illegal fight clubs in the school's basements and stealing an ATM at the local convenience stores nearby.Your father then paid for you to attend a private catholic school for two years, playing on the school's football team.” Rachel says, watching Puck become more frustrated, wondering how she knew all of this stuff about him. “And you barely graduated with a 3.0.”

“ You then attended the University of Maryland College Park and graduated with a degree in history. You were also in the Alpha Beta Phi fraternity, which you still pay dues for, as recently as last month.” Rachel continues. “ After college, you joined the Academy and served with the Baltimore PD on their drug unit for three years before transferring to NCIS.” Puck looks at her, with his mouth wide open, conflicted between being paranoid as to how she would know all of this or impressed at how good the CIA operative actually was. 

“My father always told me that you never go into enemy territory blind. Always know what you're up against.” Rachel says cryptically as Beth giggles in her lap. The toddler was trying to get a hold of the small gold star of david Rachel was wearing around her neck.

Suddenly realizing that he was just played by the CIA operative, Puck slams his hand on the desk.

“ Hey Berry! Not fair, you cheated-” Puck yells at her, but is interrupted by the site of a pissed off Santana walking into the bullpen.

Santana throws the greasy white bag at Puck, who fumbles it around a bit before catching it. He looks at his coworker questioningly while taking the contents of the bag out.

The junior agent then slams the cup of coffee on the boss' desk hard, causing some of it to spill. She then walks over to her desk and drops the big black back on top of it. She walks back over to the woman at Dani's desk, with her eyes narrowed and hands on her hips at the woman. Beth's giggling ceases as she hides her face into her mother's neck, terrified of the scary woman standing in front of them. Noticing how tense the vibe in the room is becoming, Puck sits up, looking in Santana's direction.

 

“Lopez, what did you do to this?” he asks, holding up the bag trying to get her attention.

“Who the hell are you and why are you sitting in my partner's chair?” Santana demands, ignoring Puck .

Rachel sits up straighter than she had been before and narrows her eyes at the angry woman.

“I would appreciate it if you could watch your language around the more impressionable set of ears in the room.” Rachel says sternly, pointing down to Beth.“ My name is Special Agent Rachel Berry or Officer Rachel Berry if you prefer.” 

Santana is about to say something but Rachel stands up, with her badge in hand, shoving it in the other agent's direction. Santana just stares down at the badge, not believing what the 

“I am a CIA and Mossad operative who is here on special business that does not concern you unless you are Special Agent Quinn Fabray or Director Terri Schuester.” Rachel finishes authoritatively. She puts Beth down in the chair and walks around to the other side of the desk standing 

Puck, who was in the middle of unwrapping his burger, stopped what he was doing and gawked at the two agents in front of him in shock. I have to hand it to Berry, she has a huge pair of balls on her. He said to himself. Nobody, besides the boss, had ever talked to Santana Lopez like that and lived to tell about it. The mohawked man also wondered if Berry secretly had a death wish.

Santana's hands clench unconsciously and her gaze hardens at the woman standing in front of her. Who the hell does bird beak think she is? Think it's time to knock her down a peg or two the agent seethed to herself. She put her hands on her hips and smirked devilishly at the woman in front of her as agent Berry looked at her unamused.

Before either one of the agents could do or say anything to one another, two sets of footsteps entering the bullpen interrupt their standoff.

A freshly changed Agent Fabray walks out of the elevator doors as Director St. James close behind. After their talk in the basement, Jesse silently volunteered to get some of her stuff out of there bedroom and gave her something else to change into. When she was finished they made their way back to work. 

The drive back to headquarters was quieter than it was on the way over. Out of her peripheral vision, the agent could see that Jesse looked a bit more tense and pensive than he did on the way over to her place.Quinn just assumed that Jesse was still trying to process everything that she had told him in the basement, so the agent left him alone with his thoughts. Her gut was telling her that Jesse would do anything in his power to stonewall her and the team.She was glad for the silence as she had the opportunity to do some thinking of her own. The silence continued when they got into the elevator, with the ding announcing their arrival the only thing to break it. 

As soon as they get out of the elevator doors, Quinn notices Santana engaged in some sort of argument, yet again. While Puck looks on with a dumbfound look on his face and pieces of his burger dripping onto his desk and probably all over the floor. She sighs and rolls her hazel eyes as Jesse looks at her curiously. 

“Kids.” Quinn huffs out. She hears Jesse chuckling quietly and silences him with a pointed glare.

The senior agent makes her way over to her team's bullpen, quietly standing behind Santana as she smirks at the woman in front of her. Jesse stays a couple of feet behind her and observes his friend in amusement.

“Who are you fighting with now, Lopez?” Quinn growls out lowly.

Santana's brown eyes widen and she turns around quickly, to find the boss right behind her. She takes a couple of steps back as officer Berry moves to stand next to her. Puck takes the opportunity to straighten himself out by stand up and walk on the other side of his desk, near Santana and the boss, as his burger and some of his fries hit the floor.

 

While she is thinking of some excuse to give Fabray about her misconduct, she notices a curly haired man who looked like he used one too many jars of hair gel, shadowing next to the boss. A thin eyebrow goes up as Santana looks up and down at the man, sizing him up. The man stares at her for a brief moment before his eyes make his way to Berry. His face lights up into a huge smile as he walks past Quinn and over to the officer.

“Shalom.” Jesse greets. He kisses her cheek on one side of her face, then the other, before pulling her into a tight embrace. 

“Shalom,Jesse.Did I miss it?” Rachel inquires, smiling at her old friend.

“Yes you did. But NCIS didn't.” He answers, referring to the mission in MTAC. Jesse feels a tugging on his pants leg. He looks down to see a smiling and suddenly hyperactive Beth, who lifts her arms up.

“My favorite goddaughter! I missed you so much, Beth.” Jesse coos, holding onto her tightly as she nuzzles into his neck. “Did you miss your Uncle Jesse?” She nods, clinging onto his shirt collar tightly.

The three NCIS agents look on confused. Quinn is wondering why Jesse never mentioned Rachel, let alone well enough for him to be the woman's godfather. 

The senior agent turns to Puck and Santana to see what they know about the mysterious woman.

“So what have we got here?” Quinn asks Puck and Santana, as Jesse and Rachel turn back to the NCIS agents.

“Rachel Berry. CIA and Mossad operative. Also a major pain in the ass.” Santana answers with a smirk as Rachel glares daggers into the latina agent and Quinn looks on unamused. 

“She's also here to stop you from whacking Brody.” Puck adds.

Rachel turns her attention to Agent Fabray, who acknowledges her with a nod and a small smile. She had to admit that the agent had been one of the most beautiful woman she had ever encountered in their line of work. With her short blond hair, striking hazel eyes and nearly perfect high cheekbones, she could easily pass for a model and it made her curious as to why someone with her looks would choose a job like this? 

“ Jesse St.James. New director, same mission.” Quinn tells her agents.

“With which agency?” Puck asks, confused. This morning he could have sworn Schuester was still the boss around here.

“Ours.” Quinn replies. Santana and Puck nod in understanding, with Santana not knowing how to handle the news. 

“Really?” Santana asks in disbelief. She couldn't believe that the agency would hire someone like him as their new director. The guy barely looked like he knew how to fire off a gun, let alone be the badass super spy that Puckerman had said he was.

Before Santana could say anything, Quinn sends a glare in her direction that shuts her up.

Jesse, who was trying to balance Beth on his hip, ignored Puck, using his free hand to point to Rachel.

“Special Agent Fabray, Special Agent Berry, CIA and Mossad operative.” Jesse introduces the two agents. “Special Agent Berry, Agent Quinn Fabray, Special Agent in charge at NCIS.”

Rachel almost reaches out her hand to the NCIS agent, but thinks better of it. According to some of the things her ex colleagues have told her, the senior agent did not like to be touched. She decides to stay on the safe side and fight her urge to be polite and keeps her hands at her side.

Quinn on the other hand, was still trying to get a good read on the new agent. She could definitely hold her own, after seeing her brief confrontation with Agent Lopez. Other than that, the other woman seemed harmless. But there seemed to be something off with Agent Berry.

“Jesse has told me so much about you, Agent Fabray. It's an honor to be able to put a face to a name.” Rachel says, smiling politely at the senior agent.

“Really?” Quinn asks, looking towards Jesse, still wondering how they know each other and what he could have said about her.

“ Rachel and I have known each other since our days at NYU. We've kept in contact since then and last year we worked an anti-terrorist op in Tel Aviv.” Jesse explains. “ You saw one today in MTAC.”

“That was yours?” Quinn inquires, mildly impressed.

“I only acquired the intel.” Rachel admits modestly. It had taken her nearly two years, before she got pregnant, to collect the information that they needed to bust the cell in that area. Beth was staying with her father Leroy while she wrapped up the mission there.

Beth takes her head out of Jesse's neck and sleepily looked in Quinn's direction. The senior agent looked at the little girl, noticing her piercing blue eyes looking at her curiously. She could have sworn that she had seen those eyes before, on someone else. On Brody.A little taken back, she pushes the thought in the back of her mind and takes a couple of steps away from Jesse and the little girl.

“ Excuse me.” Santana interrupts as four sets of eyes land on her, as the junior agent looks at the new director, still supicious of him.Jesse turns to face her and smiles.

“Yes I really am the new NCIS director.” Jesse answers. Santana puts her hands in her jacket and looks down apprehensively. She still wasn't sure about this new director. She gave him a year on the job, before he went back, begging to be a field agent again.

Quinn switches the spotlight back onto Special Agent Berry, wanting to cut to the chase.

“So Miss Berry, is Brody a Mossad mole or just a terrorist?” Quinn asks curiously with a half smile.

Rachel surprised at how direct the senior agent was being, quickly composes herself before answering the agent.

“ Mossad and sometimes CIA I suppose. Since I happen to be his control officer.” Rachel reveals, not being thrown off in the slightest by the NCIS agent. Quinn smiles at the feisty agent.

“Ah, they promote control officers young in Mossad, I see.” the senior agent banters. Rachel crosses her arms over herself.

“Have to. All the good ones begin to die off at your age.” Rachel fires back. 

In Mossad, you were considered lucky if you lived past the age of fifty. Even if you left the agency, there was always a target on your back. It was part of the reason why her father Leroy put her in every activity that had nothing to do with training to be the perfect mole, much to her other father Hiram's dismay. It was one of the many reasons why they were not together today.

“ Do you know how I located Brody's terrorist cell?” Quinn asks, getting straight to the point.

“ GPS fix off of his encrypted cell phone.” Rachel explains, warily. “ He wanted you to know the terrorist's location so you could stop the missile instead of him, which would have necessitated blowing his cover.” 

“ Only an NSA satellite can GPS an encrypted phone. Brody didn't know I had that asset.” Quinn explains huskily. Try explaining your way out of this one, Berry. 

“You give him less credit than he gives you, Agent Fabray.” Rachel says defensively. “Who hung up first you or him? Brody knows a fix takes only nineteen seconds.”

 

“ Last year, Brody's Hamas cell kidnapped Agent McKenzie. Why didn't he kill her then instead of freeing her to warn the Secret Service?” Rachel asks pointedly. 

“ I don't know. Why don't you arrange a meet and he can tell me himself.” Quinn challenges the other agent. She couldn't believe that Berry could be this naïve.

“ Brody Weston is a Mossad operative undercover in Hamas. He hasn't turned on us or you.” Rachel states authoritatively. “ He didn't kill Agent McKenzie.” 

Brody may be dedicated to the job, to the point of obsession, but he would have never gone as far as to kill another federal agent. At least, the brunette hoped he wouldn't. And Rachel would not let him go to prison or face charges of treason for a crime he did not commit.

 

Jesse, seeing that if he let this exchange continue on any longer, the would be having a interagency scandal on his hands, steps in and stops it immediately. He hands Beth over to Rachel and smiles at her reassuringly.

“Fabray, even if you are right, we owe them proof.” Jesse reasons. Rachel smiles at him brightly as Quinn gives him a pointed glare. Finally, a voice of reason.Rachel thinks exasperatedly.

“That's all we ask. Don't kill the wrong man.” Rachel says smugly. Quinn raises her eyebrow at her.

“ Like Mossad did in Norway?” Quinn challenges. Santana snorts at this as Puck mouths 'oh snap' over Agent Berry's shoulders.

Rachel rolls her eyes at the blond, her patience wearing thin with the blond and her team. If this is how this team expresses their professionalism, then maybe it is best that I not get the position here.

“That mistake cost us dearly.” Rachel answers as diplomatically as possible. Quinn feeds off of the other agent's frustration and goes in for the kill.

“ Not as dearly as the Palestinian waiter you killed.” Quinn answers, smiling smugly at the agent before her. Better luck next time, Agent Berry.

Rachel huffs and Jesse steps in the middle of the two.

“Rachel, assure your deputy director that, even though Brody Weston is a suspect, no action will be taken unless we have evidentiary proof.” Jesse assures her. He turns to Quinn and the rest of her team and directs his next message to them. “ Proof before action.” 

The opening notes of Don't rain on my parade break the tension in the room. Rachel hands Beth to Jesse, and pulls the white Iphone out of her pocket. She silently excuses herself away from the others to the stairway. 

A few minutes pass by and Quinn decides to look for the still absent operative. She walks past the stairway and sees the small agent still talking on the phone, but in French. She stays behind the wall and listens in.

“Jesse St. James, le nouveau directeur du NCIS est un des mes amis et peut. Il peut etre en mesure de vous aider.” Rachel says quietly. “Je peux etre capable de le convaincre de votre innocence.” 

Quinn can't hear who is on the other side of the line, but she notices Agent Berry tense up on what was said on the other side.

“Mais pas d'Agent Fabray. Elle est une femme avec du sang dans les yeux.” Rachel says solemnly a frown forming on her face. 

At the moment, Quinn wishes she would have never skipped French in high school to smoke in the alleyway with the skanks.

“Oui, j'ai les passeports.” Rachel says. 

“Je veux te voir et je sais que vous voulez voir Beth. Pourquoi ne pas vous venez nous rencontrer a l'ambassade a la place.” Rachel says, almost desperately. 

Quinn watches the brunette run a tanned hand through her hair. She watches the agent's face become crest fallen.

“Je ne veux pas, te perdre.” Rachel says softly. “Au revoir.”

Rachel hangs up the phone and shoves it back into her dress pocket, while Quinn walks back into the bullpen, confident with the new information on Agent Berry. The senior agent was certain she was protecting someone. She had a feeling that the person on the other end of the line was Brody. If she could get Sam to trace Rachel's last few calls, they might luck out and have them lead to the Mossad operative. 

As Quinn walks into the bullpen, Santana has her back turned to her as Puck is laughing hysterically at her.

“I am a CIA operative. And by that I mean Certified. In. Ass kissing.” Santana says in a high pitched voiced, holding out a piece of paper in her hand. Santana puckers her lips together and smooches the air.

“Stop it Lopez! You're killing me over here!” Puck breathes out, hunched over.

Quinn rolls her eyes and sneaks up behind Santana and Puck. Neither one of them aware of her presence. The blond finds the perfect angle before smacking them both in the back of the head hard.

Puck and Santana flinch at the intrusion as Quinn walks in between them.

Two seconds later, Rachel arrives with a drowsily looking Beth in her carrier. The three NCIS agents stand in front of her as well.

“I was just stopping by to say goodbye. I need to get the little one back for her afternoon nap.” Rachel says, addressing Puck and Santana. 

Santana rolls her eyes and snorts before turning around and walking to her desk. She hoped that this would be the last time she'd have to see the dwarf for a long time, if ever again.

Puck takes the carrier in his hands and looks fondly at the kid. Beth reaches out her hand and rubs in it his mohawk. The little girl yanks on his hair as he jolts back away from her. Rachel laughs at them, lightly.

“Goodbye Noah.” Rachel tells him, watching as he ran his hands over his neck. He really wasn't a bad guy, when he wasn't being a pig.

“Later MILF.” Puck replies with a smirk as Rachel rolls her eyes.

Rachel then looks up at Agent Fabray, who looked about as stoic as ever. Hazel eyes looked at her, almost as if she knew all of her secrets.There was something about Agent that intrigued the brunette so and she didn't know why. Now it looks like she'll never get the chance to find out.

“Agent Fabray.” She says simply, only receiving a nod in return. Rachel takes the baby carrier and walks out of the bullpen.

When Quinn is sure that the CIA operative has disappeared completely, she walks to the center of the bullpen.

“Puckerman, Lopez front and center. Now.”Quinn demands. 

 

The two agents scurry out of their seats and meet their boss in the center. They form a little huddle and Quinn leans in, making sure that only the other two agents can hear her. She didn't need Jesse on her case for what she is about to do.

“ I want you on Rachel's ass.” Quinn orders the two agents. Santana's face morphs into disgust.

“Ew. Sorry, I don't do hobbits.” Santana said.

“She's not really my type, even though my mom would love her.” Puck says indifferently.

Quinn gives the two agents a hard glare.

“To tail her.” Quinn clarifies, annoyed.

“We know that.” Puck and Santana say in unison. Signing and choosing to ignore them, the senior agent continues.

“ She's been in contact with Brody, it's the only way she could know I hung up on him.” Quinn explains.

Santana and Puck look at one another. Puck then looks at the boss, unsure of what to say. Normally, he thought Agent Fabray would be spot on, that her gut was always right. Now, he had his doubts. He felt like the boss may be taking this case too personally and it may be affecting her judgement.

“Oh I don't want you to get pissed.” Puck answers, a bit terrified. Quinn raises her eyebrows at him.

“Thought you wanted me pissed?” Quinn answers sharply. 

“ Oh I don't want you to get pissed...” Puck stumbles out. Quinn's eyes narrow further as her patience for Puckerman became non existent.

 

“ Will you just spit it out Puckerman!” Quinn quietly shouts at him. 

“What bozo over there is trying to say” Santana says, pointing at Puck “And as much as it pains me to admit, but what if Berry was right and Brody know you'd trace the call? Maybe he wasn't the sniper?”

Quinn pauses for a moment before answering.

“She was right, Brody wanted me to raid the warehouse. He set me up, and it cost Dani her life.” Quinn concludes forcefully.

“Is he a mole or a terrorist?” Puck inquires. Nothing in this case made sense to him anymore. .

“ Whatever works to play his game.” Quinn says seriously. Truth was, the rogue operative had no loyalties to anyone. They were all pawns playing right into his little chess game.

“What if Rachel leads us to Brody.”Puck asks, getting back to the assignment.

“ Shadow him and call me.” Quinn says as they break away from the huddle. 

Puck and Santana go back to their desks, grabbing their bags and other things that they would need for their stakeout. They had a feeling that there was going to be another long, sleepless night ahead of them. What made it worse, is that they had to spend it with each other.

As Quinn walks out of the bullpen, Puck catches her attention.

“ So you can bring him in?” Puck asks, clarifying his orders.

Hazel eyes bore into his as a feeling of dread suddenly washes over the junior agent.

“Yeah so I can bring him in.” Quinn confirms. She turns around and walks out of the bullpen.

“Into autopsy.” Quinn mutters darkly, but it is loud enough for both Santana and Puck to hear her.

 

The two agents are left standing there, in shock. They knew that it was going to come to this, but for some reason, neither one of them felt right about it. And for the first time in their respective times spent in NCIS, they began to have doubts about their leader and her judgement. They wondered if Quinn's year long obsession was finally beginning to take it's toll on her, now that Dani was gone.Those doubts stayed with them as they quietly walked into the elevator, making their way to the Embassy hotel.


	5. Something's Coming

Techno music blasted out of the speakers of the silver laptop, as Sam leans back into Tina's leather chair at her desk. Restlessness began to set in for the shaggy haired agent, after spending all day observing the forensic scientist test the ballistics of all of the rifles that she had in her lab. Sam sees her lay one of the rifles out on the lab table, as she picks up the Brava 51 and opens the chamber. She takes the rifle into the testing room, leaving the bored agent alone.He had offered to help her a few times and every time she shot him down. So he sat back in her chair and preoccupied himself with organizing the messy papers on her desk, temporarily feeling like he was contributing a little to the ongoing investigation. 

Sam's guilt had been eating away at him all day. There was a part of him that was angry that it was not him that Brody shot when he had the chance. Dani was dead and he was still alive and sitting on his butt while everyone else was trying to find Brody. He felt like he could be doing more than what he is right now. He also knows that if he even thought about leaving his post with Tina, the boss would be down here in two seconds flat to rip him a new one.

But the thing that had been bothering Sam the most is that he had not gone down there to see Dani in the morgue. Agent McKenzie had been the older sister the blond agent had wished that he had when he was growing up in Tennessee.She had ribbed him just as much, if not more than Puck and Santana, yet she had always found him later on and reassured him that it was all in good fun. 

He remembers the first time he had the opportunity to work a case with Quinn's team and how embarrassed he had been when Dani had caught him looking up her skirt while he was trying to hook up the network computers. The air conditioning had stopped working that morning and the computer techs refused to set up the new system networks under those conditions. He had volunteered to set up Quinn and the rest of the team's computers while he was there. Sam had not counted on Agent McKenzie arriving to work as early as she had.

After she had felt him touch her calf, he remembers how pissed she was with him and how he had a hard time looking at her for the rest of the case without remembering how embarrassed he had been earlier.

Dani had never let him forget that incident and would tease him every once in a while about it. The morning before she was killed, Dani found him looking for his favorite pen that Puck had thrown underneath her desk and she teased him about telling Quinn he was doing it again. Unfortunately for him, Dani had said it loud enough for the boss to hear and ended up on the receiving end of a hazel eyed death glare that left his stomach in knots until they got to the warehouse.

Sam sighs as he sits up in the chair and looks down.

“You were always my sweet superhero, Dani” he said quietly to himself.

Suddenly, a gust of wind blows by the probationary agent, causing him to turn the chair around quickly. Blue eyes widen as he watches the figure before him doing a back flip.

Red boots plant themselves on the ground perfectly as the woman comes out of the backflip and into a somersault. Sam's mouth is opened wide as he gazes in shock and something else taking in the site of Dani in front of him.His palms start to feel sweaty and suddenly the room felt warmer. The woman wore a unitard that was blue and had white stars on the bottom, while the top was red with gold trim. A smirk made it's way to her face as his eyes reached her mischievous green ones. Her hair, which was now black, flowed down to her shoulders as the gold crown shines in the fluorescent lights. 

Dani reaches over to her side and grabs the golden rope that Sam had not noticed was there before. She swings the lasso over her head and it falls onto the probationary agent's shoulders. She pulls the tied up agent toward her, as he looks at her nervously. She loosens her end of the lasso and walks towards the helpless agent and wraps it around him. 

“You're a naughty boy Sammy.” Dani said in a low growl. He finally closes his mouth, taking a loud gulp.

“Oh my God, I'm turning into Puck.” Sam says in a high pitched voice. He didn't know what thought disgusted him more, having a sex fantasy about his dead friend or turning into Puck.

“Hehe.” Dani giggles, putting her hand on her mouth, as he notices the golden star bracelets for the first time.

Taking his bottom lip into his mouth and biting down on it, secretly willing the most awkward situation he has ever found himself in his twenty-six years of life, Sam finally looks up and notices that she has moved a couple of steps away from him.

“ Oh wow.” Sam squeaks out after a while. 

Tina emerges from the testing area, with the rifle in hand to find a flushed Sam leaving finger nail marks into her chair and eyes widen. She walks over to the lab table and sets the Brava on the tabletop.

“Wow what?” Tina asks curiously.

Sam abruptly turns to her, startling him out of his day dream. He feels around for the golden lasso to find that it was not there.

“Uh-I-Um-I-I” he stutters out, looking anywhere but in her direction. 

Tina turns to him, putting her hands on her hips and stares pointedly at him.

“ I-Uming Evans, spit out already.” Tina said sarcastically. 

Sam notices the grip that he has on the chair and loosens it. He stands up out of the chair and clasps his hands together and walks over to where Tina is standing.

“Uh- I- I was thinking about Dani.” Sam says softly, looking down again in shame. 

Tina' s hard stare softens in understanding. She rubs his shoulder comfortingly.

“ Me too.” Tina confesses. “I still kinda feel like she's here, you know?” 

Tina looks over Sam's shoulder and sees goth Dani mouthing 'I love you' while holding up her hand that had her pointer, pink and thumb out. Tina signs back to her and receives a smile in return as Dani disappears.

Sam looks over and sees Wonder woman Dani wagging her finger in his direction. His lips turn into a lazy lopsided grin. 

Noticing the faraway look in his eyes, as the agent continued to stare out into the lab. Tina's eyes widen as she catches onto what Sam is thinking about. She takes her hand and smacks him hard in the back of the head, glaring at him as he flinches.

Sam cluelessly looks at her cluelessly.

“What the hell was that for?” Sam asks as he rubs his head.

Tina walks over to the lab table and picks the Brava up, taking it into the lab.

“If I were you, I would get that dopey look off your face before Fabray gets here. She'll be down here in five minutes.” Tina advises as she walks back into the testing room.

At the mention of the boss and how she would kill him for what he was fantasizing about, he scampers into the testing room with Tina.

“The FBI database gave me six weapons, whose rifling patterns fit the bullets you recovered. I've been able to eliminate all but three- two SWAT weapons, the Tango 51 and the Bravo 51. And this..” Tina explains, pointing to each of the guns before them.Tina pulls out the black bolt sniper rifle and hands it over to a crouching Agent Fabray. 

Quinn takes the rifle in her hands and runs her fingers along the thin barrel. She looks it over in recognition.

“My old friend. A Marine M-40 A-3 sniper rifle.” Quinn finishes. She remembers having to use this on many occasions during her time as a sharpshooter.

“It looks sweet, the way you own that boss.” Sam says proudly, smiling at the boss. His smile drops as hazel eyes send a glare in his direction.

“ Sweet?” Quinn asks him, pointedly.

“Uh yeah, it's an expression. Sweet as in-” Sam starts to explain but is cut off by Agent Fabray.

“ Yeah, I know what it means Evans.” Quinn said pointedly. “ Do you think Brody looked “sweet” when he shot Dani?”

“Of course not boss.” Sam said, shaking his head as Quinn looked as if she were two seconds away from throttling him with the rifle. Noticing this, the forensic scientist decides to step in and save Sam's ass.

“ My vote is for the Tango or Bravo 51's.” Tina suggests. “What do you think Fabray?”

Quinn looks away from Sam and turns towards Tina, temporarily forgetting her anger at the naïve agent.

“ Your test round show more gouging than Brody's.” Quinn explains, pointing to the examples in front of her. “ He was hand -loading and moly-coating.”

“Very good Agent Fabray. You are really good with that.” Tina praises, clapping her hands together.

“Moly-coating?” Sam asks.

“ Yeah. Molybdenum disulfide.” Tina explains as Sam looks at her, seemingly more lost than he had been before. “It's a lubricant. It decreases barrel wear and increases accuracy.”

“Evans, run a trace on Tango and Bravo 51 sales in the last six weeks. Tri-State area and check the Bravo first.” Quinn orders as she and Sam stand up at the same time.

“On it boss.” Sam says, leaving the lab. Tina stands up and walks over to the lab table with the M-40 and places it on the table with the others. She takes a white cleaning cloth out of her lab coat pocket and begins cleaning the barrel of the M-40.

“ Any prints on the brass?” Quinn asks as she walks up to the table. Her eyes automatically drawn to the Bravo 51. She picks up the rifle and places her hand on the barrel.It can't be. He's not that good. 

“ No.” Tina says as she cleans off the barrel. “Why? Is your gut telling you something?”

“Yeah. I need coffee.” Quinn deadpans continuing her stare down with the rifle in front of her. How did he know?

Tina throws down the cloth and carefully sets the gun down.

“ No Fabray. Come on. This isn't just another investigation. Danielle was your agent and your wife. But she was also my friend.” Tina says tiredly. “ So can you just stop with the John Wayne stare and tell me what your gut says?”

Agent Fabray's grip on the rifle tightens.

“ What don't I believe in, Tina?” Quinn asks as she looks into the scope.

“ UFO's, mystics, coincidence, saying you're sorry, excuses...” Tina says offhandedly. “ I could go on all night.”

“ As a Marine sniper, I used hand loaded, Lapua .308, boat tail, full metal jacket.” Quinn states. She takes her eye out of the scope and turn towards a confused looking Tina. “ with moly-coated bullets.” 

Tina's eyes widen and her jaw drops in shock.

“ Fabray.” the forensic scientist said solemnly. Quinn sets the Bravo 51 back down on the table.

“ Do you know what a sniper calls a Bravo 51?” Quinn asks, putting her hands behind her back, as the pieces of the investigation began to make sense.

“ No.” Tina said softly. A part of her knew what Agent Fabray was about to say, but she did not want to believe it. She didn't believe that Body would be that cold blooded or ruthless in his misguided revenge quest against Agent Fabray.

“ A Kate.” Quinn says darkly. Danielle's middle name was Katharine and sometimes her family would refer to her as 'Kate' when she was younger. 

A feeling of dread filled both of the occupants in the room, as neither one of them wanted to believe any of this was happening. Any doubts that they might have had as to whether or not Brody was really going after Dani evaporated with that revelation. She really was his target and now they were all next. No one was safe anymore.

Quinn clenches her fists as she feels her anger at the situation grow. She had no clue as to how Brody had access to the information that he might have about her team. But she was damn sure going to find out and make whoever leaked her team's information and make them pay dearly.

/

 

12:00am

Pharmacy, Downtown DC

 

A tall, lanky young man with curly brown hair, walks out of the pharmacy with a brown paper bag, as its doors close and the lights go out. He moves his left arm counterclockwise, trying to get the knot out of his shoulder. After a year of physical therapy, his shoulder was finally well enough to be taken out of its sling. More importantly, he was okayed to go back to work as a Assistant medical examiner, this time with the Norfolk county morgue.

As much as Matt enjoyed his tenure at NCIS and working with one of the best medical examiners in DC, his run in with Brody had made him reevaluate his position with the agency. The situation with rouge agent had terrified the assistant medical examiner more than he let on. It wasn't until the first six months of seeing the company therapist that he realized how much the incident impacted him. In the end, he decided that it would be best if he moved on to a more secure work environment and took an open position at the county medical examiner's office in Norfolk. He gave his old medical school friend, Mike Chang, a glowing recommendation to Shelby who hired him immediately.

Matt did not regret his decision to leave NCIS so far. Although he had missed his colleagues at NCIS and planned on visiting them before he headed back to Norfolk, Matt loved his new job at the county morgue. The work was a little less challenging than some of the cases that they encountered at NCIS. He hadn't had the opportunity to help his new boss much with autopsies and was not thrilled to be assigned paperwork until his shoulder had healed. The assistant medical examiner is excited to finally get back to what he did best on Monday and get back to performing autopsies. 

Droplets of rain fall on top of his head as Matt feels the tension in his shoulder get worse. He unlocks the door to the blue sedan and gets inside. As he closes the door shut, the medical examiner immediately like felt something was off. He freezes when he hears a clicking noise coming from the backseat. Matt looks down and sees the silver barrel of a pistol pointing in his direction.

“My shoulder hurts when it rains too, Matthew.” 

Brown eyes widen in horror and grip the steering wheel as Matt realizes the man who was responsible for the night terrors he had been having for the last year. His mind flashes back to that faithful day last year.

“Tell me, Agent McKenzie, have you ever fired your weapon out of anger?” Brody asks Danielle, as the brunette lying on the silver table as he confiscates her weapon.

Brody had held Dr.Corcoran and himself hostage for the past five hours. He assumed that no one else in the agency knew what going on and that help would not be on the way any time soon. The rogue operative had demanded Shelby to text Tina, to compare notes on the autopsy of one of his men. 

Matt and Dr.Corcoran had been surprised to see Agent McKenzie walk into the basement doors instead of the forensic scientist, but dared not show it. Unfortunately, Brody had not bought the facade, apparently recognizing Danielle when they had previously worked together. He pointed the gun in Dr.Corcoran's direction, threatening to shoot her if Agent McKenzie did not surrender any of the weapons that she had on her.

As he sat there and watched his colleague helplessly, he had expected Brody to lash out at the agent. Instead, he saw an amused smirk on their kidnapper's face. He focuses his attention back to Agent McKenzie who sits up and rolls her eyes at the rouge operative.

“No, but I wish that I could right now.” Danielle said defiantly. 

Brody laughs at her for a couple of seconds before turning the gun in his direction and pulled the trigger. The last thing he remembered, before losing consciousness, was screaming in agony as the bullet tore through his right shoulder and blood splattering his light blue scrubs.

 

Matt is brought back to reality as he feels the cold barrel being pressed up against the back of his head. He was once again another one of Brody's hostages, like he had been a year ago. The nightmare was beginning once again.

 

/

 

Autopsy

 

It was a few minutes past midnight when the exhausted Dr. Corcoran takes the zipper of the black body bag and begins to zip it up. As she got to the pale face of Agent McKenzie, she smiles softly at the young woman. She had finally finished the autopsy on her dearly departed friend and she was prepared to hand her over to the funeral home. When she had everything she needed to perform the final autopsy for Agent McKenzie, she had used some of the mortuary putty to cover up the bullet wound. Outside of some bruising on her ribs from when the agent had fallen earlier, Danielle was primed and ready to go to the funeral home, looking as stunning as she had been in life.

The medical examiner made a note to herself to talk to the busy agent about what her plans were, if she had any, as to where Danielle's body was going to go.

“Goodnight Dani.” she says softly, zipping up the remainder of the bag. She places the bag in one of the silver lockers and closes the door. Just as Shelby is about to turn out the lights and leave, the phone rings.

“ Autopsy, Dr. Corcoran speaking.” Shelby says formally, pulling out the stool, taking a seat.

“Hello, Dr. Corcoran.” Matt says calmly. 

The medical examiner smiles. Shelby had not heard from her former assistant since last year, when he formally resigned from NCIS. As tired as she was, the medical examiner also wanted to know how everything was working out for him. She had hoped Shannon, the chief medical examiner in Norfolk, was not being too hard on her young charge.

“Matt! Great to hear from you sweetie, how have you been?” she asks excitedly. 

On the other side of town, the assistant medical examiner takes a deep breath, as Brody presses the barrel of the gun deeper into his head. 

“I've been better.”Matt says hesitantly.

“Oh what's wrong? Is your shoulder bothering you again?” she asks with a frown. Suddenly, she hears a muffled noise coming from Matt's end of the phone. 

“ He's having flashbacks.” the cold voice on Matt's end of the phone says as he takes the phone away from Matt.

Shelby nearly drops the phone at the sound of the new voice on the phone. Please let it not be him. Not again.

“Who's this?” Shelby asks cautiously. 

“Oh, I'm hurt. You don't recognize your son in law's voice?” Brody asks playfully. The newly clean shaven agent leans back against the seat and props his feet up against the passenger's seat.

“You bastard! What the hell have you done to Matthew!” Shelby exclaims. 

“You do remember me.” Brody says smirking.

“If you hurt Matthew, so help me...” Shelby threatens, standing up from her stool.

“I have no intention of harming Matthew. I think one ruined shoulder is enough. It certainly is for me.” Brody jokes, playfully poking the gun into Matt's affected shoulder, causing him to wince in pain.

“ What do you want, Brody?” the medical examiner asks pointedly.

Brody takes his feet off of the seat and sits up straight, noticing that the doctor was in no mood for his teasing tonight. Then again, the medical examiner could never understand his dark sense of humor. Just like most of the others in his life“ Professionally, a courtesy. From one doctor to another.”Brody tells her. “ Personally, I just wanted to catch up, see how my mother in law is doing-”

“If you call me that again, you will be begging for Agent Fabray to come after you when I'm through with you.” Dr.Corcoran threatens. “I'm not your “mother-in-law” and you need to hurry up and get to your point before my patience runs out.”

The newly shaven Brody is stunned momentarily, before clearing his throat and continuing.

“I want to prove that I did not kill Danielle.” Brody said determined.

The medical examiner had almost allowed herself to laugh at the captor. Who did Brody think he was trying to fool with his plea of innocence? She wonders to herself. 

“ By taking Matthew hostage?” Shelby asks sarcastically.

“Matthew is free to go if you'll listen to my side of this horrific tragedy.” Brody bargains.

Shelby rubs her forehead forehead.She wasn't sure she should go through with this. He could go back on his deal and kill Matt as soon as she got there, adding another body to her table. Then again, Matt might end up or worse if she does not agree and sets Brody off, he might end up much worse. 

 

“Okay, I'm listening.” Shelby agrees, reluctantly.

“It's a long story and I'd hate to have somebody tracing this call.” Brody said. He wouldn't be surprised if Agent Fabray in her paranoia, had all of her team's phones bugged.

Shelby's eyes drift over to the silver locker that contained Agent McKenzie's body.

“Well, no one is here but me a-and Danielle.” Shelby confesses solemnly.

“It must have been a difficult autopsy for you.I am truly sorry Doctor.” Brody says, imitating what he had seen as being comforting. The Mossad operative had excelled in every facet of his training except for one. He had a difficult time relating to people and their emotions and expressing empathy. So his father had taught him how to imitate those emotions. It was the only useful thing the old man had ever taught him.

“Oh get on with it!” Shelby said angrily, squeezing the handle of the phone.

“Will you meet me alone?” he asks, picking up the gun.

“ What happens to Matt?” the medical examiner asks.

“ Come alone and you exchange places.” Brody answers. Matt grabs the phone out of Brody's hand, after hearing his former boss' deal with his captor. He couldn't stand by in silence any longer.

“Doctor, don't come! He'll kill you.” Matt warns frighteningly. 

Brody abruptly grabs the phone out of his hands and rubs the gun on the back of his head in warning.

“Learn to trust, Matthew. I may have shot you in the should, but I've never lied to you, have I?” Brody asks, blue eyes glaring at the assistant.

 

“You have my word.” Shelby agrees, prepared to end the conversation.

“Thank you.” Brody says hanging up the phone with a smirk. He leans back against the seat once again, waiting for his guest of honor to arrive. He looks over at Matt, noticing the assistant medical examiner had yet to take his vice grip off of the steering wheel.

“Relax Matthew. This will all be over soon.” Brody tells him as he closes his eyes.

Dr.Corcoran hangs up the phone and rushes over to the coat rack, grabbing her leather jacket. She closes the door, not bothering to lock it and briskly walks over to the elevator doors. 

/

Bullpen:

 

After her meeting with Tina, Quinn spent the rest of the afternoon at her desk. She had spent the better part of the day driving herself crazy over DC Metro's report on Dani's death. She had read the files from cover to cover, front to back and could nearly recite every detail within them. Unfortunately, none of them would help them answer the questions that have been haunting the senior agent's mind over the last couple of days. What did Brody really want from her? Why had he picked her and the people around her as his targets? And why was Rachel Berry protecting this piece of dirt? What did he have on her? 

She slammed the last page of the file down on her desk and covered her eyes. It's possible that her gut had been wrong all along and Berry was right and Brody was innocent? Maybe there was a part of her that wanted to blame the Mossad operative because of what happened last year? 

Quinn suddenly drift back to Dani, like they ever really stopped to begin with . She hadn't had the chance to think about what to do for her funeral or what she had wanted. They had talked about it in jest a few times over the years and coming to the conclusion that Quinn was probably going to go before Dani ever would. Just a few nights ago, Dani had brought the subject up again, wanting to talk about it seriously, only to have the senior agent brushed her off and asking her to wait until they wrapped this case.

Yet another failure to add to the books.

Quinn looks up and sees Dani sitting at her desk this time, with her arms crossed and glaring at her. The red bullet wound was still there, mocking her and reminding her of her shortcomings. 

“ Re-evaluating your convictions, now?” Dani challenges her. “ How many times have you told me that there was no such thing as a coincidence?” 

Before Quinn can answer, she feels a hand on her shoulder. She looks up and sees Jesse staring down at her, sympathetically. The senior agent takes his hand and squeezes it as hard as she can, watching as her friend recoiled his hand back quickly. He holds back from screaming in pain and rubs the afflicted hand.

“Quinn, I know this has been a very difficult day for the both of us.” Jesse says comfortingly.

You don't know the half of it St.James.

“That's what my DI used to say. Never believed him.” Quinn jokes. “Are you leaving for your date with CBS?”

“Yes, I am.” he says smiling proudly.

Just as he was about to walk away, he feels a tug on his hand. Dull, yet tired hazel eyes stare up at the director. What she was about to do meant breaking one of her own rules, but she desperate. She couldn't let Jesse do that interview and blow all of the progress that she and her team had made on this investigation. Quinn knew that if she could convince him to hold off on the interview for just a few more days, she could have Brody downstairs in the basement. 

“Don't do that interview...please?” Quinn begs quietly. Her eyes become watery as unshed tears formed as she silently pleads with her friend to do this for her and for Dani. 

A conflicted Jesse looks down at her. The director felt like he should relieve her from this case now before it consumed her. Brody had gotten inside of her head and it was only bound to get worse. But if he takes her off of the case, he had a feeling that she would take matters into her own hands and hunt down the rouge operative alone. 

“Fine, I'll see if I can delay it for a few days.” Jesse sighs, disappointed. 

“Good.” Quinn says smiling as she goes back to the papers on her desk. Jesse makes his way to the entrance of the bullpen.

“Goodnight, Quinn.” he says.

“Night.” Quinn replies, not looking up at him. 

As Jesse walks into the entrance of the elevator and lightly bumps into Dr.Corcoran, who was dressed in her beat up leather jacket and black umbrella.

“ Shelby! How nice to see you again.” Jesse greets warmly, giving her a hug. Shelby briefly returns the hug before turning around and stepping away.

Quinn observes Jesse's conversation with the doctor from her seat. She notices that the normally extroverted Shelby, seemed a bit more subdue and nervous. 

“And you, congratulations.” Dr.Corcoran says, smiling softly. Preparing to walk away, she is once again stopped by the oblivious director.

“Going home?” Jesse asks her. The medical examiner looks anywhere but in Jesse's direction.

“Um, yes. Something like that.” Shelby said nervously, while looking around for any signs of the senior agent.

She's lying. Quinn tells herself as she abruptly stands up from her desk and sprints over to the elevator doors. Unfortunately, by the time she gets there the doors shut. 

 

/ 

 

12:30 am

Downtown D.C.

The light rain began to come down more heavily as the two men sat in the car in silence. The pain in the assistant medical examiner's shoulder had worsen over the last thirty minutes. He did not know how long he could keep his arms up like this. But he also did not want to make any sudden movements, afraid of provoking his captor. 

Brody on the other hand, had become increasingly more bored with sitting with the medical examiner than he had been previously. In the beginning it was fun to watch the man squirm a little. Now he finds his victim to be quite boring. He hadn't said a word since the phone call to Shelby and didn't even attempt to engage him in any sort of conversation. The assistant medical examiner just sat there with a blank stare. Hopefully Shelby will prove to be a more engaging hostage.

“So, are you going back to work, Matthew?” Brody asks causally, breaking the silence. He sets the gun down on the seat next to him, hoping to ease Matthew's mind a bit and loosen him up.

“ Monday.” Matt tells him, not wanting to give him too much information.

“ Good. I've always found that work is the best-” Brody starts to say, but is interrupted when a red and black mini cooper pulls up behind them. 

“Ah, a Mini Cooper, how Shelby.” Brody says, amused. He picks up the gun and points it into Matthew's ribs.

“Flash your lights.”he orders. Matt turns on his high beams and flicks the stick of the car. “Now, roll down your window.”

Matt does what he is told and presses the button to open the windows. He waits for it to go all the way down before placing his hands back on the wheel.

They see Dr.Corcoran exit the Mini Cooper and the alarm go off. She approaches the driver's side of the car and knocks on the window.

Brody takes the gun and nudges Matthew out of his seat. “Now, you wait in the good doctor's car while we have a chat.” 

He sees Dr.Corcoran moving away from the door and he opens it up. The assistant medical examiner stumbles out of the car. He looks at his old boss for the first time in a year, in sympathy and Shelby simply nods in reply. He walks away from the Doctor and heads over to her car .As Doctor Corcoran enters the vehicle slowly, Brody places the small gun that he had used for Matthew into the black duffel bag at his feet and replaces it with the black rifle. He points it towards Dr. Corcoran's direction, making sure that it was in her line of site. 

Shelby sits down slowly, noticing the scope of the rifle. Placing her hands on the steering wheel, she closes her eyes, hoping Quinn and the others could figure out where she is soon.

 

Brody sits up and places his arms on the top of the seat, smirking victoriously at his new hostage.

“Hello Shelby. It's been a while.”


	6. The Good Doctor

Dr. Corcoran's fingers begin to turn white as her vice grip on the steering wheel grows. She closes her eyes, trying as hard as she can not to lose the last bit of composure that she had left, as the screeching sounds of her breaks ring into her ears. She watched helplessly through the mirror of Matthew's car, as the assistant medical examiner struggled to maneuver the Mini Cooper. She had spent many years restoring her nineteen sixty nine red and white Mini Cooper back to the impeccable condition that it once was in its heyday. To watch hopelessly as Matthew Rutherford destroy a part of her hard work in one already disastrous night , as she and her captor look on, was disheartening to say the least. 

“Oh for god sakes!” she mutters to herself. Brody raises an eyebrow and shakes his head at her.

“Obviously Matthew has never had an intimate relationship with a standard transmission.” Brody chuckles.Dark brown eyes glare hard in his direction for a moment before turning her attention back to the mirror.

“Use the clutch! God dammit Matt, use the clutch! What part of this is he not understanding?”she shouts at him, and briefly turning to Brody, as she places her head on the steering wheel. “You're stripping my gears.” 

She painfully watches the compact car jerk forward as the driver his propelled back into his seat, gripping the clutch. Shelby slams her hands against the steering wheel and points at the mirror angrily. 

“Unbelievable!” Shelby declares, exasperated.

“The price of growing up in America. You never learn how drive a stick.” Brody says amused. 

“This is too painful to watch anymore.” Brody murmurs a few minutes later, after watching the assistant medical examiner once again fail to maneuver the car. He picks up his duffel bag and places the Brava inside of it. Shelby had all but given up watching her young ward destroy her breaks system. So she placed her head on the steering wheel, hoping Brody would do something to put them both out of their misery.

“Matthew is free to leave anytime he wants to. In his own vehicle of course.” He says causally, as he discreetly exits the sedan. Shelby looks in the mirror and waits for Brody to get in the car, before she following his lead and exiting the car, slowly. 

She closes the door of the blue sedan and watches as Matt cautiously walks up to her.

“You shouldn't have come here doctor.” Matt says softly. The medical examiner pats her old assistant on his good shoulder.

“I couldn't let that bastard put a bullet in your good shoulder, or else you'd never go back to work.” she says jokingly. “ Do you have a cell phone?”

“ Brody took it.” Matt replies. 

“Keep walking Matthew and don't stop.” Shelby orders him. “I'll open the window and lean out of it and that will be your cue to drive away as fast as you can.”

“Dr. Corcoran...” Matt begins uncertainly. He didn't feel comfortable leaving her alone with a killer. He was tempted to head back to the cooper and asking Brody to take him as well. He thought they would have a better chance of getting out of this situation alive, if he took the both of them.

“Go straight to NCIS. Tell Agent Fabray everything that has happened.” Shelby interrupts, giving him a look that said this was not up for discussion. He reluctantly nods and Dr.Corcoran walks away from him. He makes his way toward the blue sedan, without looking back.

Shelby reaches the door of her Mini Cooper and opens the driver side. When she gets inside of the car, she notices Brody patiently waiting for her with the sniper rifle pointing in her direction. This time, because of the limited space within the car, she can feel the warm steel of the barrel poking into her side. She takes the key in her hand and turns the ignition of the car and hears the engine roar to life. The doctor then reaches down and manually rolls down the window and leans her head out of for a moment. She watches as the blue sedan speed away down the street before putting her head back in the car. 

 

/

 

12:45 am

Bullpen

 

“Hello, you have reached Dr.Shelby Corcoran. I am currently unavailable at the moment. Please leave a message after the tone and I will get back with you as soon as possible. Thank you.”

“Damn it!” Quinn screams into the speaker as she slams one of her hands on the end of the desk. “When I said no one leaves the building, it wasn't a suggestion!” The special agent in charge runs her hands through her short mane as she stands up and starts pacing in front of her desk.Tina rushes over to Quinn's black office phone that was currently on speaker. 

“Shelby, please pick up the phone, we're all worried about you-” the forensic scientist says worriedly, but is cut off by her furious boss.

“No one includes you Dr. Corcoran!” Quinn yells authoritatively as she briefly pushes Tina away from the phone. The senior agent's face was beat red and for a moment, Tina swore she could see steam coming out of her ears. She puts her hand on Agent Fabray's arm and pushes her back off to the side.

“We're all worried, including Quinn. Or else she wouldn't be yelling and screaming into your voicemail like a manic.” Tina apologizes while glaring pointedly at the senior agent, trying to diffuse the situation. She hangs up the phone and turns around facing her pouting boss. She had stopped pacing and was now sitting back in her chair, glaring down at the paperwork on her desk.

“Look Quinn, it's not Shelby fault okay?” the forensic scientist tries to reason while cautiously putting her hand on her shoulder. “ She's spent all day, working on Dani's autopsy, most likely on autopilot and drove herself home in the same way.”

Hazel eyes soften as she sighs heavily in defeat, knowing Tina had a point. Shelby had to spend all day prepping Dani's body for the funeral home and maybe it was too much for her to take. She knew that she couldn't do what Shelby had to do all day. The few minutes that she had spent observing Shelby, drove her crazy. She couldn't imagine being anywhere near her right mind working on the fallen agent's autopsy.

Before voice her agreement with Tina, Sam taps his hand onto his desk and looks over to them, hoping to get their attention.

“Boss! An outside call came into Autopsy twenty three minutes ago. I'm tracing the number right now.” Sam says urgently, as he typed frantically into his silver desktop. Agent Fabray abruptly gets out of her chair and runs over to Sam's desk, hunching over his shoulder as they watch the computer run the trace.

A ping comes from the computer a few seconds later as the trace comes to an end. The two agents eyes widen in surprise at the name that appears on the screen.

“Boss, the call came from Matthew Rutherford's cell phone.” Sam says. 

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot about him.” Tina adds, sitting on top of Quinn's desk with her legs crossed.

“The guy's been in rehab for the last year.” Sam points out turning to Tina.

“Maybe he heard about Dani and was trying to reach out to Shelby.” the goth suggest optimistically. 

Quinn walks away from Sam's desk and slumps back down into her chair once again, shaking her head in the negative. Outside of Dani's sister and three brothers, the only people who knew about Dani's death were the people within NCIS and Metro police. Both agencies had come to an agreement to keep her death and the details behind it under wraps until NCIS could complete a through investigation.

“So, they're in a pub somewhere downtown consoling each other?” Sam questions, causing Quinn to look up at him skeptically. 

“Yes.” the forensic scientist says as she hops off of the desk. 

“I don't like it.” the senior agent says, opening up the drawer to find her gun. She pulls out her gun and places it on her desk as she lets the drawer slam shut.

“Why not?” Sam and Tina say in unison, looking at their boss as lost as ever as they watch their friend stomp away from them.

“I don't need a reason why!” the special agent shouts at them, before sitting back down and grabbing her office phone. She didn't care if she had to fill up Shelby's whole damn inbox before the medical examiner finally answered her. She wanted to completely confirm that her friend was safe and sound at home. 

Sam and Tina watched helplessly.

 

/

 

Downtown D.C.

 

“This is a nice ride you've gotten for yourself Doctor.” Brody complements.

“A little too small for my taste, but perfect for you. Did you buy this in such pristine condition?” He asks as his calloused hands examined the smooth, black leather interior. 

Since Matthew's escape and Brody's vague directions for her to drive god knows where, Shelby had remained quiet throughout their drive. There were so many questions that the medical examiner had for her captor about the situation they were all currently in. All she wanted to do was find out why the he was doing all of this. Was this a part of his cover in Hamas or was it something else entirely? And what had Quinn done to him that he would go after everyone that she held dear, including herself. Most importantly, the medical examiner wanted to find out if Brody truly was the triggerman in Danielle's murder or had it been one of his henchmen, whose bodies were currently rotting in her fridge? The medical examiner had decided that she was going to play his game for now, hoping for a bit of quid pro quo in return from the rogue assassin.

“God no. The car was a wreck when my neighbor left it to me after he passed.The original leather interior was falling apart. The framing had begun the rusting process and it needed a new paint job. And the engine was completely shot, so it took a while to find all of the parts for that.” the medical examiner explains as she moves the clutch.

“Fascinating. Who did the restoration?” Brody asks, crossing his left leg over his knee.

Shelby looks directly into the mirror, coming face to face with the rogue agent for the first time in while. She noticed that outside of a couple of frown lines,he had not changed much since the last time she saw him lat year. Although, there were a few dark circles under his eyes and he seemed a bit paler than she could remember. Lack of sleep, seems someone has a guilty conscience.

“ I did.” Shelby answers challengingly.

The rogue agent throws his head back laughing as the doctor tries to fight the urge to reach into her glove compartment and use the extra dissection kit that she kept on her passenger prematurely.

“Of course you did.” he replies once he regains his composure.

“Do you doubt me?” Shelby asks annoyed.

“Never Doctor.” he says, toying with the seam on his pants leg. “I was just thinking of the irony, that hands so skilled at dissecting the dead are also capable of restoring life. At least to a machine, anyway.”

“What do you want Brody?” the medical examiner asks darkly. 

“A test drive and maybe some good conversation, if that's not too much to ask of you doctor.” He says causally. 

The chorus of proud mary rings out throughout the car, breaking the tension. Brody takes the phone out of his pockets and sees the name 'NCIS' flashing onto the screen. 

“ Hm, now who would be calling Matthew from NCIS at this late of an hour?” he asks, already knowing the answer. “Oh well. Matthew is to arrive there shortly anyway. Pull over here, Doctor.”

Shelby parallel parks the car into a nearby park, wondering what he wanted to do here.

He was tempted to answer it, but if the special agent in charge is as predictable as he thinks she is, then she would have the call traced. He wasn't ready for their little game of hide and seek to end just yet.

Brody rolls down the window and tosses the cellphone out into the grass. He holds out his hand to Shelby.

“Your phone, Doctor. It's only fair.” 

The medical examiner reaches over into her purse and pulls out her white Iphone. She reluctantly drops the phone into his hand and watches as he tosses it out of the window in the same way he had Matt's phone. Well that's out as evidence. She thinks wearily to herself.

“Now buckle up, Doctor. It's a dangerous night, at least it will be for you.” Brody says ominously as he grins at the medical examiner deviously, as she pulls away from the curb and back onto the road.

 

/

 

Bullpen:

 

Please record your message after the tone

Sam hangs up the phone as carefully as possible, feeling uncomfortable with the eyes currently boring holes into him. He had a feeling that she wasn't going to like what he is about to say and may resort to throwing things, specifically towards him. 

“I-I'm getting voicemail.” Sam stutters out nervously, waiting for his boss' reaction. To his surprise, Agent Fabray only glares in his direction while tapping her pen onto the desk.

“Like I said, they are at the pub. They probably can't hear their phones because of the noise.” Tina reasons, standing up from Puck's desk. 

“Do you want me to leave a message?” Sam asks carefully turning back to Quinn. The senior agent stares at him a moment longer before putting the pen in her hand down.

“No. Get a GPS fix.” Quinn orders. 

When she notices that he is not working fast enough, the senior agent snaps her fingers in his direction. “Snap it up Evans!”

“ One second boss.” Sam says holding his hand up and not looking up at her waiting for something to come up. “ Got it. Georgetown. Olive and Twenty-ninth.”

What the hell is Shelby doing in Georgetown at this time of night. Quinn wonders to herself.

“ Maybe Matt lives there.” Tina offers as she feels any sort of optimism that she may have had about Shelby's whereabouts slowly start to fade away.

“ That's a negative. It says that his current address is somewhere up in Norfolk and his old place is located on Peabody.” Sam tells her.

“ So they're-they're parked. They are probably talking.” the forensic scientist stutters out, desperately trying to reassure herself. 

Quinn stands up, with her gun in hand, and makes her way out of the bullpen, having heard enough to know that Shelby was in trouble. Sam looks into his drawer for his gun, preparing to be his boss' back up. He would be lying if he were to say that his ulterior motive wasn't to stop Quinn from doing something that will get her fired or worse.

“Do you want me to go with you, boss.” Sam asks. Quinn turns to him, shaking her head.

“No, Puck and Santana are out. Stay here and watch Tina.” the senior agent orders as she walks away.

“For nobody leaving the building, there sure are a lot of people leaving the building.” Tina deadpans as she plops back down in Puck's chair while Sam rubs his temples, feeling a headache coming on. If this case was getting to the others as much as it was getting to him, he would not be surprised if there was no team left when all was said and done.

 

/

 

Downtown D.C.

 

“How are they?” Brody asks causally. 

His attempts at getting any sort of reaction out of her had failed so far and the little patience that he possessed was suddenly dwindling. Shelby was understandably not making any of this easy on him and he wanted to even the playing field a bit by getting personal. Brody wanted to make sure that the good doctor would deliver his little message to Agent Fabray.He'd hope that maybe she'll be smart enough to back off long enough to give him enough time to finalize his deal.

The medical examiner pulls the clutch a little too hard to the right, causing the car to jerk to the side. She briefly looked into the mirror, regaining her composure and then looking back out into the road.

“I haven't the slightest idea as to what you are talking about. Care to enlighten me?”

Brody shakes his head at her and laughs. He shoves the barrel into her side and places his finger on the trigger, as a reminder of who was in charge. He wasn't going to let the doctor control his game by evading his questions.

“Beth and Rachel. How are they?” He clarifies calmly. “I'm sure the move to DC from New York was a bit of an adjustment for the both of them.”

Blood rushed through the medical examiner's ears as she turns around looks back at her captor stunned. There were only three people in Rachel's life that knew she was moving from New York City to DC, her father Leroy, Rachel's boss at the CIA, David Martinez, and herself. All of them knew of Rachel's precarious situation with Brody and had promised to keep this information to themselves until the liaison officially began her tenure at NCIS. Rachel had been concerned about Beth's safety and wanted to keep Brody away from them at all costs. At least that's what she had assumed when her daughter called her one night to talk about their move.

Although Brody had been a talented and clever operative, Rachel was leaps and bounds ahead of him.  
If she wanted information to be kept under the radar, she will do everything in her power to make sure that it stays under the radar. How Brody could have known about Rachel and Beth's whereabouts perplexed her.

She inhales deeply and turns back around, narrowing her eyes at her smug passenger.

“How do you know that, Mr. Weston?” she asks in a low growl. She feels her jaw clench and the hand that is on the clutch nearly break the black plastic top. 

A melodious laugh ringing out into the car, fueling her anger more as her foot presses down harder onto the pedal. The laughter soon fades and she watches as he readjusts himself in the seat, putting both hands behind his head.

“A little songbird told me.” Brody replies. I've finally gotten you where I want you, Doctor. He watches as her shoulder's sag slightly and her defiant gaze fade as she takes in this new information.

“In fact, she may or may not have told me a lot about your co workers and their colorful pasts. Agent Fabray's in particular.” Brody finishes, sitting up.

Oh Rachel, what the hell have you done? Shelby thinks trying to keep her emotions in check.She didn't believe him and the only thing stopping her from throttling him at the moment was the black Brava situated between them. She knew that Rachel would never risk her career or being separated from Beth for Brody. He has to be following her and Beth the same way that he'd followed the rest of the team. He had to be.

“Really? So, you used that information to murder Agent McKenzie yesterday, am I correct?” Shelby challenges angrily.

Brody leans forward with his hands clasps, looking Shelby in the eyes earnestly. 

“No, I didn't kill Agent McKenzie. She was a dear old friend of mine and I would have never hurt her, in spite of what you may think.” he said sincerely. “ I do hope that you, Agent Fabray and the rest of your team find her killer.”

The car stops at the light and Shelby uses the moment to analyze him. She looks into his blue eyes and they appear to be tired and yet sincere. For a moment she wanted to believe his story and begrudgingly go back to NCIS and tell Agent Fabray the news. But then she sees something else there, that seemed cold and calculating. That this was all a performance for her benefit and he was playing part well. As the light turns green and they take off once more, any thoughts that the medical examiner might have exonerated him faded away.

 

Noticing the flicker of doubt cross the medical examiner's eyes, Brody takes the Brava and puts it down on the floor. He leans over the armrest and places his arm on the back of the passenger's seat. Shelby looks at him incredulously. 

“An act of good faith. I was never going to hurt you doctor, I would never dream of hurting a fellow physician.” he said.

 

Imagine that, the first honest thing he's said all night. Is hell freezing over?

 

/

Downtown D.C.

 

“Okay, where are they now Sam?” Quinn said into the black headset.

The dark blue Dodge charger zips around the corner, barely missing the lamppost, as Agent Fabray approaches Olive street. She had broken numerous traffic laws and nearly skidded in the heavy rain on the slick wet roads to get here. The agent was lucky that the roads were clear and the cars that were on the road were smart enough to move out of her way.

“ Same place, Boss. Olive and twenty-ninth.” she hears Sam tell her.

Shortly after, Quinn pulls up to twenty-ninth sign and pulls up to the curb. She rushes to put the car in park and takes her seatbelt off. The special agent hops out of the car and slams the doors of the charger, not bothering to put the alarm on.

She runs out into the park, frantically searching for any signs that Brody and Shelby could be near by. When her search comes up empty, Quinn presses the headset into her ear further.

“Sam, get a fix on my cell!” Quinn shouts, making sure that the probie could hear her through the sounds of the rain.

“Okay, you're right on top of them.”

No they weren't, Quinn thinks frustrated as she continues to pace around the area. 

“Damn it Sam! They're not here!” Quinn yells at him after a while. 

“They have to be, boss.” Sam says as desperate as she feels about now.

She closes her eyes, feeling the walls begin to close in all around her. She grabs pieces of her now wet hair, clawing into her scalp. Quinn barely registers rustling of the phone being passed over as Tina comes to the phone.

“Quinn, is there a pub nearby?”

“No! There is no pub! There is no people! There are no cars!” Quinn snaps as looks around the empty park and her arms flail into the air.

“Okay, I was just checking.” She hears a thump and assumes that Tina is done talking to her for now. She wanted to feel bad about yelling at the forensic scientist, who was only trying to help, but frankly she was too exhausted to care about her feelings right now. The special agent couldn't even control her own emotions at the moment. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, pushing down the tight feeling in her chest.

“How accurate is this fix, Evans?” she asks as calmly as possible.

“It's within twenty-five meters.”

Quinn's short nails dig into her hand as she looks down defeated. She's exhausted all of her options and she just didn't know what to do anymore. For all the special agent knew, Shelby could be dead right now and Brody's dumped her body somewhere far across town. Once again, someone else was going to die for her and it was only going to continue until there was no one left.

“ It's gonna happen again, isn't it?” a voice tells her softly. Quinn looks up startled, seeing Dani once again. This time, she wore her dark blue NCIS jacket and the white pants she was in the day she died. Unfortunately the little red albatross of the agent's overwhelming guilt and failure still remained on her forehead.

 

“Shelby's going to take a bullet for you.” Dani finishes ominously as she walks up to the senior agent.

“He wouldn't kill Shelby.” Quinn tries reassuring herself. 

Green eyes widen and stare at her incredulously as she gets closer to the blond. She chuckles at her wife darkly, not knowing if Quinn's unusual optimism refreshing or naive. 

“ Why not? Because you couldn't live with the guilt? Maybe Brody knows that.” Dani finishes as she finds herself a couple of inches away from Quinn. She takes a moment and brushes back some of the senior agent's wet hair behind her ear. She leans into the agent's ear, getting as close as she possibly can.

Quinn gulps as she feels her pulse beating faster at the loss of space. The last time she had been this close to her, close to anybody really, was a few days ago and the feeling was beginning to overwhelm her. She closes her eyes and allows herself to indulge in the fantasy a bit longer, knowing that when she opens her eyes, Dani would be gone once again. She desperately needed that connection with her again, no matter how fleeting that connection may have been.

“Maybe that's his plan.”Dani whispers into her ear, stroking her hair a bit. She takes the blond agent's right hand into her own and places it on her stomach, as Quinn watches it graze the area where their child would have been.

“Maybe the only way to save Shelby, Tina and Evans, to end this little game-” she pauses, taking her wife's hand off of her stomach and placing it on her holster, where her Sig sat comfortably on her hip. “is to kill yourself.”

Hazel eyes open wide and abruptly as she steps away from the woman, noticing that she had left her once again. The agent looks down to see her hand still glued to the holster of the Sig. There was only one other time that Quinn could recall, where she felt as low and as desperate as she does now. For a moment, she thinks that Dani may be right and it terrifies her. As long as she was alive, Brody would continue to go after the people she has come to care about. It wouldn't be long before Jesse, Puck and Santana became targets as well. Maybe sacrificing herself would be a service to her team and stop Brody from shedding more of the blood of the only family she had left in the world now. 

Trying not to dwell on those dark thoughts much longer, Quinn pulls out her cellphone. An idea comes to her as she scrawls down her contacts list, looking for Dr.Corcoran's number and calling her phone when she finds it. The senior agent hears “Defying Gravity” playing faintly nearby one of the bushes and rushes over to it. She gets down on one knee and sees a familiar white Iphone on top of a black cellphone. The agent feels some of the heavy weight on her shoulders lessen and for a moment, she's able to breathe once again.She takes the phones and notices that there is a bit of superficial water damage from the rain. Nothing that a good hair dryer and Evans couldn't fix. Speaking of which...

“Special Agent Evans. Found Shelby and Matt's cellphones in the park.” the blond agent says, almost wanting to say triumphantly. Now all I need to do is find Shelby.

“Why would they leave their cellphones in the park?” a clueless Sam asks her.

“ They wouldn't Evans!” Quinn said frustrated, as she walks away from the bush and back to the Charger.

“ Do you want me to come down there?” 

Quinn approaches her car and turns off the alarm, She climbs into the driver's seat, dropping the phones into her black cup holder.

 

“ If I wanted you to come down here, I would've told you so.” she says, putting the keys into the ignition and starting the engine. “ Put a BOLO out on Shelby's Cooper and pull her license plate from her file.”

 

She hears Tina in the background, begging for Sam to give her the phone, before snatching it out of his hands.

“Quinn. Brody has Shelby and Matt.” Tina tells her frantically.

“They're not dead, T.” Quinn tell her with a soft smile of relief. She pulls away from the curb and heads back onto the main road.

“How do you know?” Tina asks her softly.

“Because...” the agent pauses for a second, trying to word this as sensitively as possible. “ Brody dumped their phones in the park, not their bodies.”

She hears the phone drop and a bit of commotion in the background. After a few minutes she hears someone pick up the phone once again.

“Uh Boss, Matt's here” Sam tells her. Sam hands off the phone to a soaking wet Matt.

“ How'd you get away?” Quinn asks, relieved that there was one less person she had to worry about, but still concerned about the status of the medical examiner.

“ I didn't. Brody let me go.”

 

/

 

2:00 am

The Embassy hotel

 

Agent Lopez turned to her partner with her arms crossed over herself and a thin black eyebrow raised as she watched her partner twitch. He crossed and uncrossed his legs with his hands in between him. After having to watch him gluttonously down a double big gulp, she felt agent Puckerman deserved the torture that he was currently experiencing.

She had told him several times on the ride over not to get it knowing that there was a chance that Rachel may want to take a dip in the pool, but he ignored each of her warnings and proceeded to drink the large sodas out of spite. The mohawked agent began to twist and turn as soon as they exited the car and the feeling only got worse as they followed Rachel and Beth to the hotel's natatorium. As far as the brunette agent was concerned, Puck had this coming.

“C'mon Lopez, just let me go for two seconds and I'll be back out here. Please.” Puck pleads, looking like he was on the verge of crying. He didn't know how long he would be able to last and Lopez refused to let him keep any spare clothes in her car while they were on stakeouts.

She rolls her eyes at him and focused her eyes back onto the natatorium doors. “Fabray told us to stay on Berry's ass, so we're staying on Berry's ass.” She uncrosses her arms and put her hands on her hips and grins. 

“Maybe next time you'll remember this moment and not drink your weight in sugar with two double big gulps.” she says.

An evil grin forms on her face as she figures out a way to make her co worker's suffering worse. She presses her face up against the glass, pretending to look at the pool water.

“ Hey Puckerman, the water in pool sure looks really nice from here.” Santana said, turning back towards him. “ It looks so warm and clear. And I think I can see a water fall coming from one of the jacuzzis. Do you want take a look and tell me if it is or not?”

Not being able to take it anymore, Agent Puckerman stomps away from the natatorium door. 

“Screw you Lopez. I'll be right back.” he said childishly as he finds himself tripping over the rug, before awkwardly jogging away. Santana put her hand on her mouth, trying not to laugh out loud.

Usually, Agent Lopez hated doing stakeouts with Agent Puckerman. He acted like a twelve year old boy and would constantly find a way to make anything and everything that they were assigned to do vulgar. But tonight, she was thankful and dare she say, happy for the antics of her co worker. He was successfully able to take her mind off of the events and turmoil of the last two days. For the first time in the last forty-eight hours, the latina had been hopeful that she was finally getting back to her old self yet again.

Santana picks at the sleeve of her leather jacker, before turning back to the natatorium windows, searching for their target. They had spent the better part of the day closely tailing Berry's taxi. The two agents followed her to a rental car place, where the brunette rented a white Prius. Santana rolled her eyes at the rental. Then, they followed her and her child into a suburban neighborhood, which Puck pointed out was Agent Fabray and Dani's neighborhood. They sat out in the driveway of one of the her neighbors for most of the day. Two people had dropped by the house for a visit, a pale, well dressed man brunette man who walked hand in hand with a black, curly haired man, who Santana assumed was his partner. They were wearing blue and orange skinny jeans that looked tighter than the pair she had at home. They only stayed for a few minutes before they left Berry's.

Around midnight, Santana watched tiredly as Rachel with a sleeping Beth in her arms, locks up the house and gets into the Prius. She was on her phone at the time, having what Santana assumed to be an angry conversation. Berry's shrill voice was enough to bring Santana out of her daze. She then punched a drooling Puck, startling him awake, and they proceeded to follow the white Prius to a seven-eleven, where Puck whined until the brunette agent relented to let him go get his big gulp. In spite of the distraction, they left at the same time as Berry and followed her back to the hotel. She and Puck were going to follow her to back to the natatorium, with the latina hoping that the Mossad operative would slip up and reveal something about Brody's location. Which unfortunately for her, didn't happen. 

 

Instead, she had to listen to her partner whine and complain about having to go to the bathroom, while Santana refused him every time.And she had to keep a close eye Berry while she splashed around with her mini me. If the junior agent were being honest, she was ready to call the Boss and tell her that this stakeout was a bust.

“ Why don't you visualize her naked, Lopez.” A voice said, breaking Santana out of her thoughts. She turns on the heels of her boots startled for a moment. When she sees who the voice belongs to, the junior agent feels her jaw drop down to the floor.

There was Danielle McKenzie, her old partner and only friend, looking better than she had two days prior. Her raven hair was parted in two perfect pigtails and she was wearing a white blouse that showed off her tanned four pack. She also wore a plaid skirt so short that it would put her old Catholic high school skirts to shame. Dani topped the outfit off with knee high white socks and black Dr.Martens, as her hand casually points to the scene inside. 

Regaining her composure, Santana peaks inside to where Dani is pointing at. She sees a tanned and toned Rachel, in a black one piece with the sides cut out, place Beth, who was wearing a pink bathing suit with yellow ducks on it and orange water wings, into the chair. She kisses the girl on the head, before walking over to the small, white diving board. Berry then bends over, as Santana watches her arm muscles flex, and dives into the water.

 

“Don't tell me she intimidates you, Lopez?” Dani asks teasing as the junior agent grunts at her.

“ Please. There hasn't been a woman born who could intimidate Santana Lopez.” Santana said cockily.

Dani lips form into a smirk at her overly confident partner. She bends down and pulls a red lollipop out of her left knee high and takes the wrapper off.

“You're forgetting Mama Lopez.” Dani says in a matter of fact way, sticking the sucker into her mouth.

“Mothers don't count.” Santana counters stubbornly, turning to face Dani.

Smirking, Dani moves her tongue around the lollipop . “What about that lawyer, Maria?”

“Divorce attorney. Worse than mothers, fyi.” the junior agent snarks, crossing her arms over herself.

“Well, Rachel's not your mother.” Dani said “ She's not a divorce lawyer. She definitely intimidates you.” The raven haired woman concludes, continuing to suck on her candy.

“Does not.” Santana argues, glaring at her friend. Ghost or not, she was not going to let Dani win this round, even if she did have a point.The junior agent had heard how hardcore Mossad operatives could be, from some of her friends from the other agencies had told her. If Berry were anyone else, she might have been more intimidated than she had been. But this was a woman, who from what she saw of her wardrobe today, wears animal sweaters and plaid that made the agent want to puke rainbows. As far as Santana was concerned, she had nothing to worry about when it came to the munchkin.

“Does too.” Dani counter, sticking her tongue out, that was now bright red.

“Does not.” the junior agent presses on, as her agitation grows. Dani gives her a sweet smile, hwile nodding her head.

“Does too.” she whispers.

“Does not!” Santana shouts, while stomping her foot a little.

“Whoa, Lopez, chill out, do you want Jew babe to hear you or what?” Puckerman asks, watching his partner argue with air. After relieving himself in the bathroom, he stood behind one of the corners, watching his partner argue with air.

Santana covers her mouth too embarrassed to say anything else.

“Who the hell were you talking to anyway?” he asks curiously.

“None of your damn business Puckerman.” Santana said defensively. “If you want to do something useful, keep your damn eyes on the munchkin clan.”

Before he could say anything to defend himself, a gorgeous, tall ,tanned brunette with light brown hair in a white robe with the Embassy insignia. She was also wearing a gold star of David, like the one Rachel had on this morning.Interesting. Santana notes to herself.

“She must be a Mossad officer too.” Santana whispers to Puck, pointing the Star out to Puck, who only nods at his partner.

She walks in front of them and comes to a halt.

“Excuse me, may I?” she asks pleasantly. Santana and Puck step aside at the same time and nod, smiling at her.

“You certainly may.” they say together in unison, sending one another a glare in return. The woman smiles politely at them and steps inside of the natatorium. Puck and Santana watch the woman take off her robe, revealing a lavender swim one piece underneath. She walks over to the sitting area, where Rachel is currently hunched over, tickling a giggling Beth. The woman walks up to Rachel and stops. She looks down at the twosome and smiles. 

They watch as the two women exchange pleasantries and the woman complimenting Beth. When the little girl starts to yawn, they watch as Rachel excuses herself, while the little girl places her head on her mothers neck. The woman in lavender walks away from them and over towards the diving boards.  
Santana watches closely as Rachel cover the sleepy two year old in a towel, before putting her fluffy white robe on . She notices Berry begin to play with something in her pockets. Well, well, well, just what are we hiding, Berry. 

Rachel walks towards them and they begin to back away from the door. But before they do, Santana sees the CIA liaison look around before taking the robe that she had on off and taking the woman in lavender’s robe. They watch as Rachel goes into to the opposite door of the natatorium and leaves.

 

“ Did you see that Puckerman? I knew that smurf was up to no good.” Santana said excitedly as Puck looks on in disbelief. 

He could have sworn Rachel was cool and sort of harmless. He didn't believe that she would help out that tool who killed Dani. But after seeing that, he wasn't so sure anymore. But he wasn't going to admit that Lopez had been right for once, just yet, so the agent decided to give Berry the chance to explain herself before he passed judgement.

“Now we got to find a way to get into that robe.” Puck says. 

Santana scrunches her eyebrows together in thought and an idea immediately pops up into her mind. 

“Listen Puckerman, you'll distract the Mossad officer, while I go investigate her robe.” the junior agent tells him. He looks at her skeptically.

“And how would suggest I do that, babe?” Puck asks rubbing his mohawk.

Santana glares at him pointedly, while watching the Mossad officer climb out of the pool and head for the changing rooms.

“I'm that pervy little mind of yours can hold her attention for a few seconds Puck, you always do.” 

A few minutes go by before Puck and Santana make their move. Santana stays at the far side entrance, where the officer left her robe, while Puck casually paced back and forth near the changing rooms. It took fifteen minutes for the Mossad officer to appear once again. She is wearing a white gown with matching white sandals. Puck pulls out his camera phone and begins taking pictures of the area. He then walks past the officer, purposefully takes a couple of pictures of her. She looks up and notices the mohawked man taking pictures of her and stands up.

“What do you think you're doing?” she asks angrily.

Puck looks around, signaling his partner on the other end subtlety, before turning his attention back to the woman in front of him. 

“Umm, I'm going for a swim.” he says nervously. The woman's posture relaxes somewhat and she points him in the direction of the locker room.

“There's a locker room back there.”

Santana walks over to the robe, making sure that the woman couldn't see her. She takes her phone out of her leather pocket and begins taking photos of the robe.

“ I'm fine.” Puck insists, hoping that Santana hurries up.

The woman looks at him curiously tilting her head. “Where's your swimsuit?”

/

Santana reaches inside of the smurf's robe pocket, pulling out a passport and about four thousand dollars in euros. She takes quick pictures of the Euros, before slipping them back into the pockets. The junior agent then opens up the passport.

There is a black and white picture of Brody smiling. But the name on the passport was not his.The alias on his passport is Jean Rene Trousseau.

Berry, you are so screwed. Just wait until the Boss finds out. Santana smiles as she takes multiple pictures of the passport. She places it back into the robe and quietly walks away from the chair.


	7. Caught in the act

“I don't have one.” Puck said as he lifts up his black shirt and lifts it over his head. 

He peaks over the woman's shoulder to see if Santana was still by the robe, only to find her sitting casually checking out her nails in a chair nearby. The woman rolls her eyes and shakes her head at him, gently shoving past him as she walked by. She steps in front of the white beach chair and picks up her robe.

“I should call security?” the woman says as she turns around and crosses her arms at him.

Puck looks around nervously quickly running out of options. He looks at Santana, hoping that she'll give him some direction in their exit strategy. Only to receive a non-committal shrug in return.Damn it, just what we need, Metro on our asses, sniffing around in our case. Boss is going to kill me if I don't come up with something quick. His eyes widen as he looks down at himself with the light bulb in his head going off. The junior agent pulls off his black shoes and bends down taking off his matching black dress socks.

“ Didn't you read the sign, babe?” Puck asks as he begins pulling off his pants and kicking them off to the side, leaving him only in his orange leopard printed briefs. He notices out of his peripheral vision, his partner staring at him wide eyed in disgust. Serves you right for leaving me hanging, Lopez.

The woman looks at him with her head tilted and eyebrows scrunched together. 

“What sign?” she asks, not quite believing his story.

Puck gives the woman his best smile while smacking his hand on his mohawk.

“I must have been blocking it.” he apologizes. “Uh, remember when I was waiting outside and you wanted to come in?”

 

The Mossad officer nods at him, recognizes him and the latina woman he was with. She briefly wondered where the other woman disappeared to. “I remember.”

“Hackensack Nudist Society. From 10:27 to 11:51, the pool is ours.” he explains not so smoothly, while pointing toward his frantic partner's direction. Santana had signaled to Puck, trying to get him to leave her out of this. Puck smiles in her direction as the Mossad officer turns around and stares at her.

Santana briefly waves to the brunette before taking her jacket off and begins unbuttoning her white blouse.

“ And uh, it's our third annual convention. My name's Agnew and I'm the president of our little establishment. And Agnes over there, is our social secretary.” 

He looks over to Santana, who has stripped down to her black lace bra, and calls out to her. 

“Hey Agnes, we look real funny with clothes on, don't we babe?” 

The brunette agent shakes her head shyly before covering her face with her hands trying to hide the blush. She also fought off the urge to give Puckerman the bird and telling him to go screw himself.

I am going to kill him when this is over. She quietly seethes.

He turns back to face the Mossad officer, finally noticing how attractive she was. Sun kissed tanned skin, that went well with the gown she put on. His lips form into a predatory smirk and he wiggles his eyebrows at her. 

She stares at him for a moment, before breaking out into a quiet laughter. The officer had to admit, the man was charming, in the same way a prepubescent boy would be attractive to her. She smiles brightly at the poor guy.

“Inventive. Funny even. But I'm married.” she says, showing him the diamond eternity band on her hand.

Puck's smirk drops instantly feeling as if he were just hit with a bucket of water. He quickly recovers wrapping his arms around his chest, pretending to be indifferent. 

“So am I.” he adds, nodding in Santana's direction. 

The Mossad officer shakes her head and walks out of the natatorium grinning. The junior agent takes this opportunity to undress her with his eyes as she walks away. 

As the doors to the natatorium close, Santana marches over to the Puck, who was looking at the blue doors in a daze, and punches him hard, where the nipple rings that he's had since high school were. He yelps out in pain, holding on to his pecs, and stares angrily at his partner

“Ow, what the fuck Lopez! I was saving our cover!” Puck yells, trying not to cry. He had to admit that Lopez could throw a mean right hook when she wanted to. 

Agent Lopez steely glares at him before pointing a well manicured finger into his face.

“If you ever speak of this again to anybody but the boss, I will ends you Puckerman.”Santana threatens in a low growl. Agent Puckerman throws his hands up in surrender and begins to pick up his pants.

“ Let's call Fabray and fill her in.” the junior agent says over her shoulder, walking back over to the table to collect her shirt.

 

/

 

3:30 am

Bullpen

 

Agent Fabray strides out of the elevator doors making her way through the bullpen, with Shelby and Matt's cellphones in one hand and her own cell phone in the other. She had gotten a call from Agent Puckerman, saying that he had new information. Unfortunately, because of the reception in the building, the blond could only make out every other word that he was saying.

“What is your gut telling you, Puckerman!” she shouts into the phone. The senior agent can only hear static on Puckerman's end on the phone before she hears his voice again.

“Tha-t it wa-nts pizza, boss.....” he says.

When Quinn reached her desk, all she could hear was silence on the junior agent's side of the phone. She slams the phone into the desk, along with the bag with the other phones, startling the three occupants on the other side of the room out of their conversation. All eyes are on her as she rubs her temples near her hairline.

“Oh God.” she grumbles out, closing her eyes for a second. She looks up and sees two sets of eyes on her. Sam and Tina were looking at scattered photos on his desk,of the tire tracks from the scene, still trying to figure out what car they belong to. While Matt was doing his best to avoid any and all contact with the agent in charge, fearing that she blamed him for not doing more to help Dr.Corcoran.

“What have we got?” Quinn asks tiredly.

“Brody picked up Matt to force Shelby into a meet.” Sam explains. Matt moves away from Sam's desk and towards the middle of the room. Agent Fabray studies him to see if he was lying. She leans forward on her desk.

“Did you warn her?” she asks him glaring, already knowing the answer.

“I did, but you know Dr.Corcoran-she came anyway.” he says nervously, slightly twitching. 

Quinn's gaze softens as she backs off a little. The poor guy had been through enough, it's not his fault he was here right now. She sighs as she stands up, picking up the bag with the phones in them. She toss them over to Sam, who fumbles it around before it settles into his arms.

“ Not your fault Matthew. Brody's the bastard.” Quinn states, trying to comfort him. “Shelby made the decision to go, not you.”

The senior agent points to Sam while she walks over to her desk, grabbing her cellphone.

“ Debrief it. Write it up. I'll be with Puck and Santana at the Embassaro Hotel.” Agent Fabray says as she walks out of the bullpen and towards the elevator doors.

“Actually, Puck and Santana are at the Embassy hotel. Not the Embassaro.” Tina corrects as she follows close behind. Quinn tilts her head and looks at the scientist confused.

“Then why the hell did he say the Embassaro?”

The blue haired scientist just shrugs her shoulders at her boss. “Cell phone garble?” 

“All right, from now on everyone is using phonetics, like we did in the core.” the senior agent orders, crossing her arms and huffing.

Tina looks at her quizzically, putting a mesh gloved finger on her chin, trying to remember the correct letters. She can't remember the last time the team has ever had to use phonetics when talking to Agent Fabray.

 

“Um... Foxtrot-Alpha-Bravo-Romeo-Alpha-Yankee?” the forensic scientists recites perfectly.

Agent Fabray nods in approval. She steps inside of the elevator doors while Tina runs up to them holding the doors a bit longer.

“Can I please go back to my lab now? I'm flipping out up here with nothing to do.” Tina whines, putting on her best puppy pout. 

As much as she liked spending time with Sam, she had to admit his job at the moment was a bit boring. She had spent most of her time watching him type up reports or run traces for Quinn every once in a while. Tina thought she could be of better use to the investigation if she were in her lab, looking over the evidence again.

The senior agent sighs, putting her hands in her pockets. “Fine, but don't-”

Tina jumps up a little and squeals excitedly. “ leave the building? I know.” 

She lets go of the doors and turns away from the senior agent. 

“Bravo-Yankee-Echo!” Tina shouts excitedly over her shoulder as she runs away from the elevator.

/

4:20 am

The Embassy Hotel

 

“Boss, can you hear me?” Puck says leaning against the wall with the phone on speaker. Next to him is a bored Santana, who was too busy picking her leather gloved nails while trying to get warm b smoking her cigarette to pay attention to her partner's conversation. 

 

They had been standing outside of the hotel for the last twenty minutes, waiting for any signs of their boss. He had tried to call her several times after they left the natatorium to tell her about what they saw, but every time they talked, the signal failed on either one of them. The last time the mohawked agent had spoken to Agent Fabray she told them, agitated, to wait for her outside and that she would talk to them outside when she got there and then abruptly hung up on him. 

 

The junior agent was a bit disappointed that the boss hadn't said whether or not she was going to bring them pizza for all of their hard work.

 

Puck was able to get a hold of her again and this time he was determined to ask her about that pizza.

“Across the street Puckerman.” Quinn says while drumming her fingers onto the steering wheel impatiently.

Santana takes her eyes away from her nails and looks at Puck with a raised eyebrow. He shrugs his shoulders and walks away from the door with Santana close behind. 

The agents strut down the sidewalk looking through the line of cars, until Santana sees the flashing headlights of the charger parked in front of a shop a couple of stores away from the hotel. Puck walks up to the window and uses one of his cold hands to tap on the glass.Quinn looks up at him and rolls down the window. 

“ Boss?” Puck asks, speaking into the phone.

Santana and the senior agent exchange annoyed glares before Santana snatches the phone out of Puckerman's hand and ends the call. She shoves the phone back into his chest and watches him fumble it around in his hand. Santana walks over to the other side of the car, getting into the passenger's seat while Puck opens the door behind the boss' side and climbs in.

“What have you got for me Lopez, Puckerman?” Quinn asks as they close the doors of her car. 

“ Get this, Berry slipped a phony french passport and some cash.” Santana says grinning triumphantly while crossing a leather clad boot over the other. 

“ To the- uh babe with the Star of David I told you about.” Pucks interrupts as he scoots forward, trying to get more comfortable in the seat.

He places his hand on the seat only to feel the ridges of a square box. His eyes widen and light up with glee as yanks the lid off of the box to find a greasy half eaten pepperoni pizza. The junior agent looks into the mirror and sees Quinn giving him a half smile and Santana rolling her eyes. 

 

“ I love you Boss. ” Puck says dramatically, taking a slice into his hand and stuffing half of it in his face.

“How do you know the passport's a phony?” Quinn asks looking away from the mirror. She wanted to make sure that Puckerman and Lopez had their stories straight before she would consider Berry an accomplice.

Santana turns into her seat facing Quinn. “Positive it was. The passport had Brody's photo, but not his name.”

Feeling her stomach grumble, Agent Lopez reaches for the pizza box, as Puck stuffs a second piece into his mouth. He sees her hand and tries to swat it away, unfortunately Santana's reflexes were quicker. She smiles smugly, watching as he pouts while she brings the slice to her lips.

“ What name was he using Lopez?” Quinn asks, turning at an angle to look a Lopez and Puckerman. The senior agent was doing her best not to throw both of them out of the car for their childish antics. 

“Aren't you curious to know how I- I mean we, got it” Puck asks her as he sets the pizza box in his lap next to him.

“Not really.” she mumbles, hoping that he couldn't hear it. The senior agent looks up and sees how excited he is and she decides to placate him for now. 

“I assume you improvised like I've told you about a thousand times now.” Quinn says bored.

Agent Puckerman smiles and looks up at the ceiling, preparing to rivet the boss with his brilliance. While his partner sits back huffing and rolling her eyes at him.

“What an improv. I swear to God, I could get a gig on SNL.” he says congratulating himself. 

“Although Lopez over there could use a little more work, but I'm sure she'll get there eventually. Anyway, I come in and pretend to be this goofy guy trying to get laid-” 

Quinn raises her eyebrow at him with a smirk. 

“Just pretending?” she asks sarcastically as Santana snickers in the background. Puck puts a hand on the left side of his chest clutching it.

“That hurt boss.” he says pouting. 

“What's the name?” the senior agent asks, trying to get to the point. 

“Well- the?” Puck stumbles out. Quinn turns back facing forward and looks at Santana pointedly.

“The name, Lopez.” she orders, watching the junior agent straighten up in her seat.

“Jean Rene Trousseau.” Santana replies, tossing the pizza crust into the box. Puck moves toward the middle of the car and sits in between the two women.

“T-R-O-U-S-S-E-A-U. He spells out for his boss.

The blond reaches into her coat pocket and pulls out her phone. She takes it out and sets it on the dock.

“ Description?” she asks turning to the two agents.

“All I saw was the name on the photo.” Puck says as he sits back, shrugging his shoulders. Santana joins her boss in shaking her head at the mohawked agent. 

How got into NCIS remains a mystery to me.The junior agent thinks to herself. 

“No you idiot, the Mossad officer. “ she answers for the boss. 

He scratches his the middle of his head and looks at the awaiting agents. “Oh yeah. About five feet, nine inches, dark hair, blue and white sundress. Small black purse, real pretty girl.” 

He winks at the two exasperated women as he finishes his sentence. “Looked enough like Rachel to be her sister real pretty.” Santana nods along with him before butting in.

“Puckerman's not lying there. She could be Rachel's extremely hot sister that makes you wonder if in Berry was adopted.” 

“Maybe she is. Mossad's like the Mafia, one big happy family.” Quinn says sarcastically, looking out of the window. There was no doubt in her mind that Mossad knew exactly what Brody was up to, but like everything other government agency, was doing their best to sweep him under the rug.

She looks at her phone and hits the talk button redialing Sam's phone. The phone rings twice before the distracted probie picks up and answers.

“Hey Evans, put out a passport alert. Brody's traveling with a French passport under the alias: Jean Rene Trousseau. Tango-Romeo-Oscar-Sierra-Sierra-Echo-Alpha-Uniform.” she recites patiently.

“On it boss.” Sam answers, typing in the information. “ Okay, what alert category?”

“Terrorism.” Quinn answers, looking out at the street impatiently.

“On it.” Sam said.

The senior agent ends the call and places the phone back into her pocket. Puck looks at her through the mirror grinning, as he picks up another slice of pizza.

“That ought to get Customs' attention.”

“Well let's make sure he doesn't get that far, Puckerman.” the agent says watching his expression deflate a little. She assumes that he remembers their plans from the bullpen.

Puck places the pizza back in the box, suddenly not feeling hungry anymore. He looks over to Santana, who is wearing a matching grim expression. 

They were all for catching Brody and roughing him up a little before handing him over to the higher ups. But they weren't so sure if they, or even the boss, could actually kill Weston. The Mossad agent wouldn't be the first suspect they've had to take out over the years and he certainly wouldn't be the last. However, he would be the first one that they've killed who would not exactly be a clean kill. Santana and Puck both wanted justice for Dani and would love nothing more than to see their boss give Brody what's coming to him. At the same time, they weren't so sure that the way Quinn was going about this was the best way. Maybe the special agent in charge was doing all of this for revenge instead of justice. Although, neither one of the agents would dare voice their concerns to the boss though because they were slightly terrified as to what she might do to them in her current state mind.

Puck turns around and watches as a yellow taxi cab stop at the entrance to the Embassy. He sees the brunette, who was now wearing a black trench coat, look from side to side while on the phone, as she gets into the taxi. 

“That's her boss.” Puck says as Quinn and Santana turn around looking out the back window. The senior agent then unlocks all of the car doors. She was going to tail this woman alone, not wanting Puckerman and Lopez slowing her down.

“Stay with Rachel.” she orders. Santana looks at her boss, knowing that she has lost it.

“ What if this girl's meeting with Brody? You're going to need back up.” Santana states obviously. 

The blond's short mane flips a little as she turns her head glaring at Santana. The junior agent tenses and shrinks under her scrutinizing gaze.

“Let me rephrase that for you Lopez-” she says in a low growl. 

“Get. Out. NOW!” Quinn shouts pointing out of the window. 

Opening the doors quickly, Santana and Puck scurry out of the car. Before he closing the door completely, he grabs the box with the remaining slices of pizza and shuts the door. 

“Thanks for the pizza, boss.” he says, waving nervously at her. 

The senior agent rolls down the window. “ Don't thank me, thank the guys from the night shift. I swiped it from them” She rolls the window back up and watches as the two agents walk away from the car.

Quinn backs out of the parking space and pulls away from the curb. She puts her foot on the pedal and follows the yellow taxi away from the hotel, making sure to stay a couple of feet behind it at all times. 

For a few minutes, she follows the taxi down a couple of side streets and turns on her signal preparing to turn another corner. Sitting at the stop sign, she notices a red and white Mini Cooper approach her. She quickly looks between the retreating taxi and the approaching compact, trying to decide what she should do. The senior agent moves the car forward and turns the wheel quickly to the right. 

The Mini Cooper comes to an abrupt stop, as Quinn grabs her gun from the compartment and pulls it out. She shoves the door open of her car and runs out to the drivers side of the small car, with her gun ready and aimed at the driver.

“Brody! Get out, Brody!” she shouts while moving in slowly. The senior agent is tempted to put the gun up to the window as a way to get the rogue agent to move faster.

The door of the Mini opens slightly as the driver waves one arm out of the door slowly. Quinn looks down to see a black heel make its way out of the vehicle. That's definitely not Brody, damn it! Quinn seethes as she lowers her gun to the ground. 

Her anger quickly turns to relief as she watches Shelby slowly step out of the car. Her hands are still up in the air as she shoots the senior agent a stern look.

“Good grief Lucy! Put that weapon down!” Shelby scolds as her arms drop to her side. “I've had enough excitement for one night as it is.”

Quinn chuckles, putting her Sig back into her belt holster and running up to the medical examiner. She walks up to the medical examiner, relieved to see that Brody had not laid a hand on her. She pulls the medical examiner in for a tight hug. 

“Brody abducts me. Then Matthew strips the gears in my baby. And now you play chicken on a wet street.” Shelby rants into Quinn's jacket. The senior agent lets the medical examiner go when she's done.

“ Where's Brody?” Quinn asks urgently. Shelby looks down for a moment before walking back over to her car and sitting back down in the driver seat, silently telling the senior agent to do the same. Quinn catches on and gets into the passenger's side of the Cooper.

“ Gone I suppose. He had me park a ways back.” the medical examiner says, pointing in the opposite direction of the street. “Then he received a phone call and when he was done, he told me to drive down the street for ten minutes.”

Quinn takes her cell phone out of her pocket and hits redial. Sam answers the phone right away and she hears the probie put him on speaker.

“ Evans. Congress Cab number seventeen picked up a female fare at the Embassy hotel ten minutes ago. If he's en route, I need his twenty. If he's dropped his fare, then get me an address and take the BOLO off of Shelby's Cooper- she's safe.” Quinn orders with a half hearted smile. She ends the call after Sam confirms her order. 

The senior agent and her friend spend the next few minutes in silence, as each of them try to comprehend the events of the last few hours. Exhaustion began to set in for the blond agent as she leans back into the seat. In her haste to keep tabs on the rogue operative and his possible accomplice, Quinn had not gotten that much sleep. And whenever she did find herself falling asleep, all she could dream about was Dani. So the senior agent takes a moment to close her eyes, hoping to get at least a couple of minutes of rest before going back to the bullpen and figuring out how they were going to catch the bastard before he leaves the country for good. As sleep began to overtake her, Quinn entertains the possibility that Brody will get away with this. That there was nothing she could do to help her makeshift family from suffering the same fate as Dani.

Shelby quickly glances at her friend for a moment and watches her succumbs to exhaustion. Her eyes are closed tightly and the expression that she was wearing seemed uneasy. Her skin was paler and frown lines were more prominent now, in the last few days than they had in the past. She cause Quinn's hands clenched so tightly that a few of the veins in her hands were exposed. 

She had not been able to look the blond agent directly as she entered her car. For once she was thankful for the senior agent's silence. As it gave her time to really think about everything that has transpired in the last seventy-two hours.

The knot that had formed in the pit of her stomach ever since Dani had been brought to her table, as guilt began to take its toll on her . Somehow, the doctor felt like she was responsible for everything that had gone on with Brody. Shelby couldn't help but think that maybe if she had told Quinn about everything she had been holding back that Dani and their unborn child would still be alive. Tina wouldn't have had her office shot into and the team wouldn't be in danger. She would have saved Quinn all of the unimaginable guilt and grief that she's going through right now. 

It was part of the reason why she went in Matthew's place when Brody abducted him even though she would have gone anyway. She thought that maybe if she could get some information out of the assailant that it would help them solve this case quickly and Dani's family would get justice for her death. Unfortunately, the only thing she was able to get out of Brody was confirmation that he would not stop until the special agent in charge destroyed herself, but not before he had her watch helplessly as he destroyed the people around her. 

Shelby rubs her temples and stares conflictingly at the lightly snoring agent, not knowing what to do anymore. If she told Quinn about Rachel being her daughter and the liaison’s connection to Brody, she was sure that Quinn would find a way to have Rachel sent to Guantanamo to rot while she placed her and Brody's heads on her fireplace mantle. But if she didn't tell Quinn and the senior agent finds out on her own, the consequences could be worse than she could ever imagine for her and Rachel. Brody would find a way to outsmart them all and be out of the country by the time Quinn makes the connection. All the lying and secret keeping she had done would have been for nothing and she would lose a close friend in the process. 

 

She puts her head briefly into the steering wheel and sighs, knowing what has to be done next. Shelby hopes that Quinn will be able to forgive her someday.

The medical examiner sits up and turns to her right side. She reaches out and shakes the senior agent's shoulder lightly until dark hazel eyes stare back at her sleepily.

“Our paths didn't cross by accident.” Shelby states as Quinn shakes her head in confirmation.

“Brody's cell call came from that woman in the cab that I was tailing.” Quinn explains while coming out of her sleep induced haze. Shelby turns away from the blond and pauses, taking a moment to fit the pieces of this night together. After a few moments, she continues on.

“ He sent me down this street so that you would run into me?” shelby asks shaking her head in disbelief. 

Quinn turns her body towards Shelby as much as she can. She wanted to ask the unusually pensive medical examiner what she was thinking. Why Shelby, who usually had to remind her not to break protocol, would walk off during a lockdown and go to Brody knowing what he was capable of doing. Why didn't the medical examiner trust Quinn and the rest of the team to bring Matt back to NCIS safely and unharmed? In the end, the senior agent decided against it, hoping that Shelby would say something when all of this was over.

“ Yeah. The cab keeps going, picks him up, they're gone.” 

“ Brody abducts me to get you off a trail?” Shelby asks somberly.

“Maybe.” Quinn states.

“Of course he would.” Shelby mutters to herself quietly, hoping the special agent couldn't hear it. 

Ignoring her comment, Quinn turns her head towards the troubled medical examiner and watches her toggle the stick to her mirrors, pretending to readjust them. 

“What did you and Brody talk about?” 

Shelby lets go of the stick and lowers her head. 

“Well, we uh- talked about my Cooper for a while. He was surprisingly knowledgable.” Shelby says nervously, still not looking at Quinn. 

The senior agent moves her hand telling her to go on, waiting for her to continue on. 

“ Then we talked about Edinburg Medical School. We're both alumni about a couple of decades apart...” she looks up and starts to say more but is interrupted by the impatient special agent.

“ Anything important, Shelby?” Quinn asks, not even close to being interested in anything about this monster's life story. She wanted to know if he slipped up and possibly gave away anything that would tell her where he was.

Shelby says to herself, taking in a deep breath before going on. She stares deeply into calm light green eyes, knowing they won't be like that once she tells the agent everything.

“ Yes. He says that he didn't kill Danielle. Made a very logical and passionate defense as well.” Shelby says, remembering what Brody had told her before he left the car.

“If I was dead set on killing Danielle, as fervently as Agent Fabray seems to believe, why wouldn't I have killed her last year in the morgue?” Brody asks her. “Come on Shelby you know me. If I were to kill Agent Mckenzie, don't you think I would have been more personal about it. Maybe go to their home on Hastings, have a couple of my men deactivate their security system and subdue Jethro while I went into their bedroom and took care of them both as they slept?”

“You believe him?” Quinn asks incredulously, not believing that Shelby was buying into any of this crap.

 

“He was very...persuasive.” Shelby says cryptically. “ Said he knows that you'll never believe him.”

“Well he's right about that.” the agent says defiantly. Shelby looks away from Quinn for a moment, gathering her thoughts. Here goes nothing.

“Quinn, there's something else I need to tell you about Brody.” she says hesitantly. The irritated blond starts to interrupt, but Shelby stops her by putting up a hand. “ It can't wait until later and I would appreciate it if you could wait until I'm done before you say anything.” 

The agent frowns at her for a moment and then reluctantly nods.

“My car wasn't the only topic of discussion during my time with Brody. He also asked about Officer Rachel Berry and her daughter Beth.” She folds her hands into her lap and stares down at them as Agent Fabray eyebrows knit together.

“The Mossad officer?” Quinn asks. “Why would he ask you about her?” 

“Because she's my daughter.” Shelby confesses quietly. “And Brody happens to be Beth's father.” 

Quinn scooted away from Shelby and stared blankly into the road. She didn't know how to feel about Shelby's revelation. It does explain why Rachel was being so defensive of Brody when they had questioned her about him or how uncomfortable she was being around Beth. At the same time, a part of her was furious with Shelby for waiting until now to tell her about Rachel. 

The medical examiner looks up reluctantly, preparing to take the brunt of the special agent's wrath. She was ready for Quinn to yell and scream in her face, while fighting to keep her weapon in its holster. She even had her finger on the lock of the door preparing to kick the angry agent out of the car until she had cooled off. But what Shelby wasn't expecting to see was the serene expression on the senior agent's face. Which for some reason, seemed to scare her more than the agent lashing out.

“That's not surprising, believe it or not. Poor Beth.” Quinn mutters, still not looking at her companion. “Why didn't you tell me about Rachel?”

“It didn't seem relevant at the time. Biologically Rachel is mine,but her fathers Hiram and Leroy raised her. I was more like the cool aunt who she could go to with certain things that her fathers wouldn't understand.” Shelby says smiling for a moment. 

“Hiram Berry, as in Assistant Director of Mossad Hiram?” Quinn asks.

“Unfortunately.” Shelby replies frowning. Hiram Berry was a bit of a sore topic for the medical examiner, especially after the way he treated her friend and daughter over the years.

“ I never imagined that Rachel would get herself into this kind of situation. I thought she knew that she could come to me or at least her father Hiram if she was in trouble.” she continues. 

“But unfortunately she may have inherited Hiram's stubbornness and felt like she handle Brody on her own.” Quinn glares at Shelby.

“What do mean by trouble?” she asks as she crosses her arms.

“She hasn't been acting like herself since I visited her in New York six months ago. She's been more withdrawn and secretive. Every time I ask her about work or how she was doing, all I get are one word answers.” Shelby explains.

“And you've talked to her, she doesn't know how to give an answer in just one word most the time. The dictionary was practically Rachel's best friend growing up thanks to Hiram.”

Quinn chuckles a little sharing a look with Shelby. She tries to imagine a five year old Rachel struggling to carry a large Webster's dictionary that weighed more than she did at the time.

“What wrong with that? Maybe she's been working too hard and having trouble balancing that with taking care of Beth?” Quinn suggests.”It can't be easy for her to raise a two year old by herself?” Shelby shakes her head at the agent.

“Rachel has been raising, Beth on her own since she found out she was pregnant. Balancing work and her kid is not the issue.” Shelby says forcefully. “Besides, she has her other father Leroy and I to help her anytime she needs it.”

“Then what is, Dr. Corcoran?” Quinn asks.

The medical examiner pauses. “A few months ago, Brody stopped by Rachel's house to spend some time with Beth. As he was about to leave, they got into an argument and she told me something of hers went missing.”

“Did she say what it was?” the agent asks. 

“No she didn't. Over the phone, I heard her pacing around and it sounded like she was tearing her house apart. I offered to call in an anonymous tip to the NYPD and she panicked and said no, that she would handle it and hung up.” Shelby says, stopping to give the special agent time to digest the information.

Quinn on the other hand was seething. The blond honestly didn't think she could have a lower opinion of the rogue operative than she already had, but she did. He was using his family as collateral in his plans and she imagined that he didn't give a damn. Brody had everything she didn't at the moment and he was willing to piss it all away.

“ After that phone call, we didn't talk about it again and it seemed that she was back to being Rachel for a while. Then three weeks ago, she called me saying that she was selling her brownstone and moving to DC. There was a position opening up at NCIS as a temporary replacement agent that she was looking to get-”

“Dani's-” Quinn whispers quietly.

“Yes, Dani's job. I was shocked to say the least but happy for her, until she told me that she hadn't told her fathers yet.” Shelby said. “ Rachel always tells her fathers almost everything before she tells me. I thought it was strange that she would tell me first.”

“ I asked her if she was doing okay and what her rush in moving was. I knew that Dani wouldn't need to be on leave until at least four or five months into her pregnancy. Rachel's response was that she wanted a new start and that she just couldn't be in the city anymore and left it at that. I wanted to get more out of her, but she said that she had something to do and hung up.” Shelby finishes. She wanted to say that she did not believe for a second that Rachel would leave the city that she loved and dreamed about as a child without a damned good reason, but decides to keep this to herself. 

Glassy and exhausted brown eyes stare at the senior agent, who was deep in thought, for a minute and then turning to leave her to her thoughts.I hope Rachel doesn't hate me too much after this.

A few minutes pass by before either women say anything. Shelby once again takes the opportunity to fill the silence.

“ I didn't keep this information from you to hurt you or the investigation. I thought I was doing the right thing for my daughter.” Shelby apologizes. The blond agent sharply turns her head and the medical examiner could see her dark hazel eyes burning a hole into her.

“ Well you did, Dr.Corcoran! And now thanks to you, my team is in trouble and there is a strong possibility this asshole is currently trying to skip town! What in the hell were you thinking!” Quinn shouts. 

“What are you talking about?” Shelby asks, not bothering to defend herself or her actions right now.

Quinn closes her eyes, realizing that she almost told Shelby about what Santana and Puck had told her. Normally, she would have told Shelby everything that Santana and Puck have found. But right now, she couldn't trust the medical examiner with such sensitive information.

“We have reason to believe that Brody may be leaving.” Quinn says formally.

“He won't leave.” Shelby says definitively. Quinn stares at her disbelievingly.

“ Brody told me that it was a shame that one of you had to die. He's arrogantly confident that it won't be him. And I'm a hundred percent certain that he won't try to leave the country until he finishes you” Shelby explains. “He also said that on the off chance that it is him, to keep looking for Danielle's killer.”

Quinn sits up straight as she feels the adrenaline begin to rush through her body. Her tolerance for Brody has all but disappeared and she was ready to get rid of him once in for all. With a renewed resolve, she opens up the door of the Mini Cooper and gets out.

“ He's a slick bastard, Shell! But he is right. One of us is gonna die!” Quinn says determinedly as she slams the door to the car so hard that the entire car began to shake. Shelby rolls down her window.

“Quinn! Quinn!” Shelby calls out to the retreating agent but gets no response in return. 

“Damn it!” she says, slamming her hands the steering wheel. She slumps forward against her steering wheel, dreading whatever there was to come. The medical examiner felt drained and helpless to stop whatever each of the agents had planned for the other. 

There was one option she could use but she's afraid that if she does use it, Rachel will confide in her again.

It seems like Rachel doesn't trust me anyway at the moment. Shelby ponders to herself.

/

 

4:45 am

The Embassy hotel

 

Rachel tries her best to balance the dark blue baby carrier and the three cups of coffee in her hands. She was starting to regret her decision to have the cabbie drop her off two blocks away from the hotel's entrance. Thankfully for her, the side walk was clearer than it had been before they left.

She sets the baby carrier down for a moment and tugs at her black trench coat. She takes her white iphone out of her pocket and scrolls down to find her mother's number. She had been trying to call her all night, hoping that the medical examiner could step away from her patients for a moment and have a cup of coffee with her. Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to get her all night.

 

She taps on the green phone icon and listens to the phone ring three times before it goes to her mothers voicemail. Shrugging her shoulders, she picks the carrier up again and continues her walk down the sidewalk.

“Momma!” Beth whines as she takes her tiny hands and rubs her eyes. She tugs on the crochet star blanket, trying to cover herself up. Rachel sets Beth down again and tucks the blanket inside of the girls carrier. 

“I know baby, we're almost at the hotel. We'll be in our room soon.” Rachel coos to her softly.

I could kill Brody for wanting to see her this late. Rachel says to herself. Brody knew they had spent most of the day at NCIS and setting up their new house. Yet he still insisted that he see Beth tonight instead of waiting until morning, when the young girl was less agitated and tired. He didn't have to deal with a cranky two year old after playing father of the year for a couple of hours.She couldn't believe how selfish he could be sometimes and wondered what she ever saw in him?

 

As they got closer to the entrance to the hotel, a smile formed on the liaison’s face at the site of a Special Agent Puckerman sleeping on the wall, mouth wide open and everything. While his partner, Special Agent Lopez, leaned against the wall typing furiously into her phone. Neither one of them even tried to pay attention to the surrounding area in their stakeout, at least that what she assumed they were doing.

Is NCIS really that easy to get into? Rachel wonders to herself as she strides up to the confidently to the entrance. 

Rachel approaches Noah quietly, listening to the not so soothing sounds of his snoring. Now that 's something I don't miss. She waves her hand in his face, checking to see that he was really asleep. When she's satisfied, Rachel taps him on the shoulder lightly.

Agent Puckerman jumps up and squeals a little at the intrusion, patting his hips clumsily looking for his gun. Santana looks over at her partner, seeing him in distress and puts her phone away. She pulls out her Sig and prepares to take the safety off. When she hears a familiar annoying giggle, the junior agent reluctantly puts her gun back in its holster.

“What the hell are you doing Berry?!” Puck yells, straightening himself up.

Rachel's giggles turn into a full belly laugh. When the liaison is done, she raises one of the cups of coffee in her hands.

“ Expresso?” Rachel offers them. The mohawked agent takes the cup enthusiastically, while Santana raises her eyebrow skeptically at Rachel.

“Take it. It's not a bribe, I promise.” Rachel says, staring right at Santana.

“ Thanks babe.” Puck says. He tries to take a sip of the coffee, only to have his arm slapped by Santana, who tries to take his cup away.

“You dope, what the hell are you thinking? There could be poison in that coffee!” Santana exclaims.

Rachel and Puck collectively side eye the paranoid agent. Rachel picks up one of the cups of coffee and takes a long sip out of it. While Puck just shrugs his shoulders and chugs the whole thing in one sip.

“There, happy? No poison.” Rachel tells her, placing the cup back in the drink carrier.

“Hell no. You're a Mossad double agent. How do we know that they haven't taught you to build a tolerance for whatever poisonous crap you put in these coffees?” Santana says, crossing her arms defensively.

“First of all, I work primarily for the CIA, Lopez. And second of all if you don't want the coffee-” Rachel says but is interrupted when a newly revitalized Puck reaches into the carrier and grabs the other cup.

“Then I'll gladly take yours Lopez.” Puck says smugly smiling at his partner. Santana huffs to quietly off to the side.

“Like I said, thanks again Rach for the coffee.” he said once again. “You have no idea how much I've need this.”

Rachel smiles at him appreciatively and gives Noah a moment to realize what he's just said.

As he's about to chug Santana's coffee, his eyebrows scrunch together and looks at Rachel dumbfounded.

“Hey, wait a minute. How did you know I needed this?” Puck asks, setting the cup back in the carrier. Rachel just shrugs and looks away pretending to be distracted. They'll figure it out in 3...2...

Santana's eyes widen for a moment before she turns to glare at her partner angrily. She slaps him on the good part of his mohawk, trying to make him think faster. Puck turns to her and glares but then realizes what Santana and Rachel were talking about. He points a finger at the liaison, who in turn smiles at them cockily.

“ How long have you known we were-” Puck says but is interrupted by Rachel. 

“ Following Beth and I? Since I left the Naval Yard.” Rachel answers nonchalantly.

Santana rolls her eyes at the other agent. 

“ I don't think so.” she challenges, glaring at Rachel.

Rachel sets the coffee carrier on the ground. She puts a finger on her chin and closes her eyes, pretending to think.

“ Let's see, Blue sedan.You laid behind a white station wagon for while. Then a telephone van.” Rachel explains while frowning a bit dramatically. “Then you lost me at the seven eleven, when Agent Puckerman-”

“Alright! Alright so what you knew! Give it a damn rest Berry!” Santana says angrily, stomps back over to the entrance. She slumps down on the wall until she is sitting down on the sidewalk, next to the pizza box, and crossing her arms. She huffs at her three companions before turning her body as far away from them as she can get.

Puck on the other hand, stood back smiling at his partner's antics. He hadn't seen her this pissed at someone in a very long time. He liked the fact that Rachel could get under Lopez's skin. Puck had a feeling that once Santana got her head out of her ass, she would see that Berry wasn't all that bad.

Too bad Rachel might be an accomplice to murder. Puck thinks causing his smile to drop a little.

Rachel picks up both of the carriers up and follows the pouting agent over to the entrance. She stands in front of her and takes out the second cup of coffee and looks at Santana sympathetically. Just because Rachel had a rocky start with the junior agent, didn't mean she wanted her to suffer from hypothermia.

“Language, Agent Lopez.Take it. It's chilly out here.” Rachel softly orders as she bends over. A gloved hand pushes the cup in Santana's direction.

Santana turns and looks up at the Rachel suspiciously. For a moment she sees something that could pass as concern. She rolls her eyes and snatches the cup away from Rachel and takes a sip. 

Rachel sits up straight and smirks at the stubborn agent and her partner.

“You both shouldn't feel too bad. I was trained by the best.” Rachel says winking at them. 

“You know, that's what I like about I like about Mossad.” Santana says, after finishing sipping on her coffee. She glares at the girl challengingly. Berry is so out of her league here.

“Our training?” Rachel says cockily. 

“Nope, your modesty.” the junior agent deadpans, putting the cup back up to her lips. Rachel glares at her as if she were going to say something as Santana silently eggs her on.

Seeing the potential for this exchange to get ugly real fast, Puck walks over to the pizza box and picks it up. He opens up the lid and shoves the box into Rachel's face breaking their stand off.

“So baby momma, do you and the little one over there” he says while pointing to Beth. “Want a slice?”

Rachel glances at the cold greasy slice and scrunches her nose up in disgust. “No grazie, Noah.”

Puck stares at Rachel confused and then turning to Santana, who just shrugs and goes back to her coffee.

“I didn't say anything about grass, Berry.” Puck says. “Just pizza.”

The brunette shakes her head and grins, trying her best not to laugh at the well intentioned agent. 

Rachel looks down at Beth and sees that the two year old wore herself out. It still amazes her how much the little girl bares a striking resemblance to herself at her age, even down to infamous Berry pout. She hands the remaining coffee cup over to Agent Puckerman and softly brush the little fluff of brown hair sticking out of Beth's pink cap. She watched as Beth's mouth open a bit and her head turn to the side. Rachel beams adoringly at the two year old, almost forgetting that the two NCIS agents were around. 

Sometimes she would find herself staring at Beth and find herself reminiscing about her cousin at that age. A teary smile forms on her face as she remembers all of the times her Aunt and Uncle, when they visited from Tel Aviv, would let her hold her cousin this way. She takes a deep breath and sighs. 

“I lost my younger cousin Dalia in a Hamas suicide bombing when I was eighteen. She was thirteen at the time and one of the best of us, at least on my father Hiram's side of the family.” Rachel says softly as she looks up at the two agents. 

“ I'm sorry.” Puck says looking at her sympathetically. He lost his cousin when he was nineteen to a gang shooting in Baltimore, so he could relate to Rachel. Santana just offers the liaison a nod, then goes back to looking at the ground.

“After Dalia's death, I was like Quinn. All I wanted was revenge.” Rachel confesses. 

The liaison remembers the dark place she went into after Dalia's death. She isolated herself of everything that involved school or anything that involved singing. It reminded her of Dalia and it just hurt too much. Eventually, she began to withdraw from school and the rest of her life. Two months before the end of the semester, Shelby and her father Leroy set up an intervention. Through their support, she was able to pass through her spring courses with flying colors and they even encouraged her to change her major from musical theatre to double majoring in international relations and Arabic before the start of her sophomore year.

Santana looks up and stares at her suddenly curious.

“Is that why you talked the CIA into letting you be a liaison for Mossad?” she asks.

Rachel shakes her head as she uses her free hand to brush her bangs down. 

“No, I was Mossad long before Dalia's death. Old-” she replies bitterly. As much as her father Leroy tried to discourage Hiram's grooming of Rachel for a life in Mossad, it didn't take. 

“Family tradition?” Puck interrupts.

“ Israeli sense of duty, I guess.” Rachel says sarcastically. Or just fulfilling my obligation as a pawn in daddy Hiram's political career.

After Dalia's death, Rachel was originally determined to make someone pay for her cousin's death. So she signed up with an internship with the CIA her sophomore year of college, in spite of the many objections from her Daddy Leroy and to her surprise, Shelby. She spent the next three years learning everything she could about the CIA and working her way up to a spot at the agency by graduation. By the time she graduated from NYU, at the top of her class, Rachel was offered the position of a field agent for the CIA. Three years later, Hiram had talked to Rachel's boss and a few of his contacts in the Pentagon and he was able to create a position for the brunette as a liaison with the CIA for Mossad. She spent two years training with Mossad before she was promoted to their counter terrorism operative as a control officer where she had worked for five years. 

Three weeks ago, Rachel walked into her boss, Agent Martinez's office and requested an immediate transfer into NCIS. As much as she loved her job, she didn't want to miss anymore moments of Beth growing up. It didn't seem fair to her to always shuffle her daughter off to her father Leroy while she went off to some country to babysit Brody. Rachel wanted Beth to have a stable childhood and she thought that being in Washington DC would provide her with that. It also didn't hurt that in Washington DC, she and Beth would not be as close to Brody as they had been in New York. Rachel knew that Brody would never give up the bachelor pad he had in his beloved city for anyone, not even his own daughter.

Rachel glances down at Santana, who's shaking her head at her. She sees the junior agent set down her cup and put her hands under her chin.

“Come on Berry, stop holding out on us. Tell us who recruited-” Puck holds his hands up and bends his fingers in air quotes. “ I mean 'inspired' you to become a federal agent” she finishes. 

“Or possible assassin.” Santana mutters to herself, snickering.

Rachel glares and huffs at the sitting agent and then turning her attention to Noah.

“Father? Uncle? Brother? Boyfriend?” Puck continues on ignoring their exchange. 

Rachel shakes her head at him. She raises her eyebrow at them, playing along with the mini interrogation. Shes Agent Lopez opening her mouth preparing to add in her own two cents, but Rachel beats her to the punch.

“Aunt? Sister?” Rachel adds. She pauses for dramatic effect and stares directly at Santana, winking, before going on.

“Lesbian lover?” Rachel says in low, husky voice as a smirk appears on her lips. 

Puck and Santana's jaws drop and their eyes widen as they turn away from the liaison, neither one knowing how to react.

Rachel down on her lip trying to keep herself from laughing hysterically at the two agents and taking the chance of waking up Beth up. Sensing that the mood has become a bit uncomfortable, Rachel walks towards the doors of the hotel lobby. Before she enters, Rachel turns around and looks over her shoulder.

“ For your information, I volunteered.” Rachel quietly yells, still not getting attention of the shocked NCIS agents. 

“Laila Tov.” Rachel says sweetly as she and Beth disappear into the lobby. Maybe that will teach them and hopefully Agent Fabray to stay out of my private affairs.

Agent Puckerman and Agent Lopez finally realize that Rachel is gone as they slowly come out of their stupors. 

Santana, who still could not seem to find anything to say, stared in horror at her partner. She couldn't believe that Rachel had guessed correctly that she was a lesbian after only knowing her for a few hours. And yet it took two years for the rest of the team to even ask her about her sexuality. Maybe Rachel really was a better agent than she had originally gave her credit for.

Note to self, keep a closer eye on Berry. She's trouble. She tells herself.

Puck on the other hand, just stood there with a dopey smile on his face and only one thought. 

I hope to God that Rachel really isn't working with Brody and she joins the team.


	8. Just Like Old Times

 

**4:50 am**

**Bullpen**

 

 

 

 

Sam stands up from his chair and walks over to the printer on the wall near Agent Fabray's desk. He starts tapping his fingers on the frame of the machine nervously as he waited for the case file report on Dani to print out. The probie had spent the last six hours working on a report that Puck was suppose to finish writing up once it was his turn to tail Rachel. But somehow the older agent had once again convince him to stay behind and work on the paperwork, just in case something new came in with the case.

 

He looks over at Dani's desk, for what seems like the one hundredth time today and sighs. He thought that after a few days it would be easier to see her empty desk but it wasn't. There was a part of the him that was still in denial about the death of his friend. Sam still hung on to the notion that Santana, Puck and Dani were playing an elaborate practical joke on him, and was somehow able to get everyone else in on it.

 

Sam abruptly turns away from the desk and throws the files on his desk. He turns away and walks over to the filing cabinet by Agent Puckerman's desk and opens up the drawer. He pulls out the drawer and jumps back a couple of steps and covers his mouth to stop himself from screaming at what he finds.

 

Dani lies in the drawer with her eyes closed. Sam takes his hand off of his mouth and takes a couple of tentative steps forward. Blue eyes look around the pale sheet covered woman that was once his friend. Dani looked exactly like she did a few days ago, when he caught her sleeping underneath her desk. He watches her eyes flutter open and dazzling green eyes stare back at him with a small smile.

 

“Why haven't you come to see me?” Dani asks him. Sam notices a flash of hurt in her eyes as he bites his bottom lip out of guilt.

 

Sam had meant to go down to see her, he really had, but he just couldn't do it. He wasn't ready to accept that Dani was gone and he would never see her again. He wanted to prolong the inevitable for as long as he could. So he kept himself tied up in the case and with protecting Tina and used that as an excuse. But seeing her look at him the way she is now, makes him feel like the worst person in the world.

 

“If you don't peak at the back of my head, I'll just look like I'm asleep.” Dani jokes as Sam gives her a small smile. It was always like Dani to make anyone feel better about themselves with a joke, even if it came at her own expense. Her turns into a frown as he sees her eyes cloud over in sadness.

 

“I'm so lonely.” Dani says softly. “I'd even welcome a visit from Puckerman”

 

Dani sighs and looks away from Sam.“But I guess I should get use to the loneliness, shouldn't I Evans?”

 

The sound of footsteps causes Sam to turn around. He sees Tina in her white lab coat march up to him frantically, with a file in her hands.

 

“Evans! Didn't Puck match the tire tracks to a Chevy Suburban?” Tina asks, while walking up to Sam.

 

Sam nods, turning his attention back to the open drawer to see that Dani was gone once again. He sighs closing the drawer, turning his attention back to Tina.

 

“Uh yeah, Bridgestone Duelers. Factory issue.”

 

They walk back over to his desk and Sam sets his report over to the side. Tina grabs Sam's chair and sits down at his computer and pulls up the web browser. The probie scrunches his nose, watching as the forensic scientist types something into his computer.

 

“Uh, what are you doing?”

 

“We caught a break!” Tina says excitedly. She opens up the folder in her hand and shows them to Sam.

 

“The National Reconnaissance Office or NRO orbited a new Keyhole. They're doing calibration tests using the seventh hole of Norfolk Naval golf course.”

 

“Why the seventh hole?” Sam asks curiously.

 

Tina gives him a bright smile before patting him on the shoulder. “ See, that's why I dig you, Evans. You think specifically.” He smiles bashfully as the forensic scientist continues on.

 

“ Whatever the reason, we are grateful because that orbit took the Keyhole over Newport News. I inputted the warehouse coordinates-” Tina says looking down at the paper while typing. She presses the enter key and waits.

 

Two seconds later a map of Norfolk appears on the screen, along with a clear picture of a crouching Sam hiding behind the black Civic during the shooting at the warehouse.

 

The probie walks up behind Tina and puts his hand on the back of the chair. He leans into her closely, not believing what he is seeing.

 

“That's me.” Sam says pointing towards the picture.

 

Tina pulls up another picture of Puck, who was on the rooftop looking down at the ground.

 

“That's Puck.”

 

Tina clicks on the last picture of Quinn. Her eyes were closed and some of her short mane got into her face, but he could see that she had her eyes closed. She had taken off her jacket and was in the middle of placing it on top of Dani, whose head was surrounded by a pool of blood.

 

“Quinn....Dani” Sam whispers sadly.

 

Tina gaze also lands on Dani. She had glanced briefly at the photos of Dani's body to measure the trajectory of the bullet and when she was done, she had to turn the photos over. Tears began to well up in her eyes as she glances at Sam. Tina quickly clicks away from Dani's photo and onto the building across the way from the building that Quinn and the team were on.

 

“Is that the building where Brody's sniper nest was?” Tina asks, pointing to the building

 

“It is.” Sam huffs when he sees that they only had a picture of the building and nothing else.

 

“But Brody's not there.” Sam huffs.

 

Tina looks up at Sam. “Well what do you expect? A video of him shooting?”

 

“Well, I was hoping there would be.” Sam says glancing down at his shoes.

 

Tina reaches up and pats his cheek lightly.

 

“Only in the flicks, Evans.” she says laughing lightly at him. Tina turns around in the chair as Sam backs up, giving her a little space.

 

“So why were you excited again? We still have nothing to prove that he's the sniper.” Sam says.

 

Tina places her finger on his chest and lightly drags it down his abs. Her finger stops at his belly button.

 

“I don't know Evans. Maybe it's being alone with you on a rainy night...” Tina says playfully as Sam gives her a pointed look.

 

“Tina...” Sam scolds, even though he was enjoying their little banter.

 

Tina takes the hand that was on Sam's belly button and removes it. She places it on the mouse and clicks on it one time.

 

“Oh, look. Could it be? A black Chevy Suburban driving down the alley way?” Tina says amused, putting a finger on her chin as she watches Sam's mouth widen and his eyes bulge out.

 

“Can-can-can you read the license plate?” Sam stammers while pointing to the truck.

 

Tina turns back around, facing the plasma, and zooms in on the plate.

 

“That depends more on the resolution than it does on the angle.” Tina tells him as she is attempting to get a clear picture of the plate. “ It's not a dress, Evans. You can't look up it to see what you want.”

 

Tina zooms in on the license plate more and isolates the image. After tinkering around with a few minutes more, she is able to get a clear picture of the registered Virginia license plate.Sam didn't know if he wanted to laugh or cry at the moment. The bastard had finally slipped up and they were now one step closer to apprehending him.

 

Sam jumps up and smiles widely at the forensic scientist.

 

“Yes!Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!” Sam shouts, clapping his hands after every yes like he had won the Superbowl. He turns Tina's chair around and picks her up out of it and into a bone crushing hug.

 

“Evans!” Tina squeals happily, trying to get the excited probie to put her down. She was happy that they were closer than they were to getting justice for her best friend. But she'd also like to live long enough to see Brody in cuffs.

 

Sam turns red from embarrassment and sets the forensic scientist down back on the ground gently. He holds his hands up and when he's done.

 

“I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.” he apologizes. Tina gives him a grin and nods.

 

“I've got to put a BOLO on that plate.” he says excitedly.

 

Sam slides over in his chair and exits out of the program. He opens up another program and begins to type in the information that Tina had proved him with. When he was done putting the BOLO on Brody's Suburban, Sam moves his chair away from the desk and reaches into his pocket. He pulls out his phone and finds the boss' number. Tina sits on the edge of Sam's desk and taps his shoulder.

 

“We did good, huh?” Tina asks proudly. Sam takes his free hand and lightly strokes her cheek.

 

“ _You_ did great.” he assures her.

 

_Dani would be so proud of us right now._ He thinks as he presses the send button and puts the phone into his ear.

 

* * *

 

**5:00 am**

**Rolling Oaks**

 

 

Quinn's Charger pulls into the quiet residential neighborhood of Rolling Oaks. After her visit with Shelby, she had decided to pay her best friend a surprise visit. Quinn never had the opportunity to visit the house Jesse had bought two years ago and she figured now would be the perfect opportunity to do so. She stopped by a nearby gas station and ordered them a cup of cups of black coffee and picked up a couple of donuts. She pulls her car up to one of the street lamps on the edge of the sidewalk.

 

Quinn turns the car off and gets out of it, turning on the alarms as she walked away.

 

The senior agent also had an ulterior motive for this visit. After she stormed away from Shelby's car and left Georgetown, Quinn had some time to think about everything that was going on. Her gut was telling her that they were really close to having a major breakthrough in the case. So far, they had nothing to go on other than circumstantial evidence. Quinn knew that Mossad would try to justify Brody's actions as being apart of his cover. If she were to get her friend and the Director of NCIS to convince them that Brody is a rogue operative, then they would corporate and force Rachel to her tell everything that she knew about Weston. But first, she actually has to convince Jesse that Brody had gone rogue.

 

She briskly walks down the side walk with the street lamp, looking for the number to Jesse's place. She finds the number of the house which was the second to last house on the block on the left side of the street. Quinn stands in front the two story house and looks up to see that Jesse's bedroom light is on.

 

_That's surprising. Prince St.James is up at 5 am with the rest of us plebeians. Wonder what he's up to?_ Quinn wonders holding in a grin. 

 

The senior agent feels a vibration in her black slack pocket. She reaches into it and pulls out her phone. Without looking at the caller id, Quinn presses talk and answers.

 

“Yeah. Fabray.”

 

“ _Boss we got Brody's-” Sam says quickly into the phone._

 

The senior agent rolls her eyes and bites down on her tongue.

 

“ Slow down, Evans.” Quinn tells him

 

Even though the senior agent was only able to hear every other word of what probie was saying, she was able to decipher that he had gotten Brody's plate.

 

“Take breath.” She inhales with Evans and then exhales with him two seconds later.

 

“Now, start with the address.” she tells him, taking out a notepad and pen from her coat pocket.

 

“ Seven-two-four. Tango-Juliet- Alpha.” Quinn puts the notebook back in her pocket. “Got it.”

 

She hangs up on Evans, feeling better about this case than she had earlier. Maybe they would be able to implicate him in Dani's death after all.

 

Quinn scrolls through her contacts list and finds the number that she needs. She stares looks up at the house, waiting for the director to answer.

 

* * *

 

**5:10 am**

**St. James residence**

 

 

Jesse lay back on his bed in only his plaid flannel pants and reading through another file. It had been a long and excruciating day for the new director. Between all of the meetings he had to go to, touring around the NCIS building and introducing himself to the different departments in the agency and ending the day with placating the angry executives at CBS at dinner, Jesse was beyond exhausted. When he came home after dinner, the director barely had enough energy to get up the stairs and into his bedroom. Jesse had planned on going to sleep and not waking up until ten the next day. When Jesse's head hit his pillow though, sleep never came.

 

 

 

 

The only thing that seemed to plague the director's mind is his friend Quinn. He was pretty sure the special agent in charge had not been home since he saw her in the basement yesterday afternoon. And from the five minutes of interaction he had with her team, he assumed they haven't been home either. Quinn's team had been working around the clock on trying to find whoever killed Agent McKenzie. As honorable as Jesse found her team's loyalty to Quinn and Agent McKenzie, he didn't want one of his teams to be too burnt out to work. Which is why he told Agent Evans to tell Quinn that they wouldn't have to report in to NCIS until noon the next morning.

 

But the only person Jesse was really concerned over was Quinn. He felt like she was avoiding dealing with her emotions. She was compartmentalizing everything that she was feeling and the director was afraid that it would boil over one day. She just lost her wife and the only thing the agent could think about was work. And yet, when she got home and needed something from their room, Quinn couldn't get through the door. He was afraid that whatever guilt Quinn maybe feeling over Dani was tearing his friend apart.

 

One of the phone calls he had received today was from Brooke McKenzie, Danielle's older sister. She had called him earlier today looking for Quinn, since she could not get ahold of her on her house and cell phone. She thought that maybe Jesse could talk to her and get some information out of her before Brooke finalized her sister's plans. The director had apologized on the agent's behalf and promised to talk to Quinn. That she would have her answers by tomorrow afternoon.

 

He picks up the manilla folder in his lap, with the name 'Weston' in black sharpie. Jesse wanted to get to know Quinn's apparent archenemy better. His resume was impressive and most of his case files clean. The undercover work that he's done on behalf of the agency was just as impressive as the work he and Quinn had done.The Mossad operative had an impressive record, with all of his superiors at the agency had nothing but glowing things to say about the man. Brody was practically the perfect mole and yet Quinn still expected her to believe he was actually a double agent? Jesse stares at the black and white photo of Brody. _Then again, the double agents are always the ones you never see coming._

 

The sound of his phone ringing broke the director out of his thoughts. He picks up the phone and adjusts his black rimmed glasses.

 

“St. James.” he answers formally.

 

“ _I need a partner for the night. Do you think you're up for it?” Quinn tells him._

 

Jesse rolls his eyes and smirks.

 

“Quinn Fabray, if you've called me at five o clock in the morning just to ask me to be your human teddy bear, you're barking up the wrong tree. May I suggest ordering an escort for the night.” he says cheekily. “It's not too late.”

 

“ _The last time I checked, it was against protocol to take a escort out on an assignment for NCIS.” Quinn laughs back.”You didn't think I-”_

 

Jesse smirk turns into a frown.

 

“Well then this will be easy, the answer is no.” he huffs. “You have a whole team of agents at your disposal. Why trying _using_ one of them.”

 

“ _Can't. Evans is on protection detail with Tina.Puckerman and Lopez are tailing Rachel.” Quinn tells him. “And since I lost...”_

 

“Wait a second, Puckerman and Lopez are doing what?” Jesse asks horrified, as he gets out of the bed and stands up. “Lucy Quinn Fabray, I swear if you..” he stops, realizing that it was pointless at this point to try to argue with the stubborn senior agent.

 

He sighs, rubbing his hands on his eyes. “Well, where are you.”

 

“ _Outside.” she causally tells him._

 

Jesse raises his eyebrows at the phone and then walks to over to the window. He pulls the burgundy curtain aside and looks down below.

 

The director does in fact see the special agent in charge in front of his house. He sees that she was wearing the leather jacket he had gotten out of her bedroom this morning. She gave him a self satisfied smirk and a small wave.

 

Jesse shakes his head and glares at the agent before closing up his curtains.

 

“ _I didn't realize that being the new director meant abandoning your grooming habits, St.James.”_

 

Jesse abruptly ends the call and stomps angrily over to his closet. _So much for staying out of the field. The things I do for you Fabray._

 

Jesse sat back in his seat, with his arms crossed and a bored expression on his face. He watched silently as Quinn recklessly weaved through the traffic on the road as they made their way to the address Evans had given them. When he opened his door for the senior agent, the director tried one last time to get out of this stakeout. Unfortunately for him Quinn decided to pull out the big guns giving him her infamous pout and Jesse was a goner. He slipped on a black t-shirt to go along with his black jeans and they left shortly after with Quinn getting behind the wheel and Jesse getting on the passenger side.

 

The Director had forgotten how reckless of a driver the senior agent could be. Back in high school, he remembered the many occasions where Quinn nearly caused him to go into cardiac arrest thanks to her driving. He blindly thought that it would be a phase that the blond would get over when she got older and became more mature. And yet here he was seventeen years later, still holding on to anything available, all because of Fabray's driving. _Someone should really look into getting her license revoked._ Jesse ponders as he feels himself being thrown forward and then abruptly pushed back thanks to Quinn riding on the side of a semi. He yanks his head in her direction, glaring at the senior agent who had a mischievous smirk on her face.

 

Not wanting to give her anymore satisfaction, Jesse sighs and goes back to facing forward once again.

 

“What are the chances that Brody is still at the house?” Jesse wonders impatiently. Quinn turns and looks at him for a moment, then going back to looking at the road.

 

“ Zero. Shelby was a diversion, so your _friend_ Rachel could pass cash and documents to him.” Quinn said tensely. The senior agent didn't trust Berry as far as she could throw her. She knew that Rachel was just covering up for her boyfriend and the father of her child's crimes for less than professional reasons.If this were anyone else, she was certain that the liaison would be more cooperative than she is now.

 

Jesse rolls his eyes at the agent. “Rachel's a control officer doing her job. You'd do the same if the roles were reverse and you know it.”

 

Quinn shakes her head in denial then looking in the director's direction.

 

“ She's using you Jesse.” Quinn warns, turning back to the road. Jesse smirks in her direction.

 

“It's mutual because I'm using her too.” Jesse says confidently. “ A half a dozen Hamas suicide bombers will not be blowing up our boys in Afghanistan because of Rachel.”

 

Quinn's eyes widen knowingly. _Now it all makes sense._ “She's Metsada, isn't she?”

 

“The Mossad code name for that division is Komemiute.” Jesse corrects her.

 

Quinn takes her hand off the wheel and raises it up in Jesse's direction.

 

“Whatever they name it, they still specialize in _assassinations_!” Quinn says exasperated. _Is he always this dense or is this the first time I've noticed it._ Quinn wonders.

 

Jesse stares at her with an eyebrow raised and his mouth wide open.

 

“Excuse me. But weren't you once a Marine Sniper? Kind of hypocritical to judge Berry when you both pretty much had the same job isn't it?” Jesse asks her incredulously.

 

Quinn glares at him and her grip on the wheel tightens.

 

“If I have to go through your _friend_ to get Brody, I will.” she says angrily.

 

If Jesse weren't sure that Quinn would kick him out of the car and make him walk the rest of the way to Brody's, he would have laughed at the agent. Rachel followed the rules down to the letter, which had frustrated Jesse to no end whenever he had to work with her. If Brody was doing something outside of protocol, he knew that Rachel wouldn't even think twice about offering him up to her higher ups.

 

“Rachel knows that.” Jesse said casually.

 

Quinn raises and eyebrow at him and smiles. “You really do like like her, do you?”

 

The director's expression turns serious as he looks away from the senior agent and out of his window.

 

“Whether you want to believe it or not, she's a damn good agent.” Jesse says with conviction.

 

The director folds his hands in his lap and stares down at them.

 

“And I owed her. She saved my ass in Cairo five years ago.” Jesse adds quietly.

 

“We were paired together to thwart an attempt by an dealer in the area, who was planning on selling high grade military assault weapons to a Hamas cell in the area. I volunteered for this assignment because I knew it would be a great way to get some face time in with the higher ups in our agency.”

 

“Of course you would.” Quinn mumbles to herself as Jesse glares at her.

 

“Anyway, everything was going to plan. Rachel had finalized the deal and we were preparing to apprehend him. Unbeknownst to Rachel and I, our cover had been compromised. And as we were leaving his compound, a car drove up beside us, filled with the arms dealer's men. They shot straight into the car, killing two undercover agents that were with us. One of the bullets had gotten into one of my main arteries. I had started to bleed out and Rachel climbed out from back seat and managed to get me out of the car.” he continues. “ She dragged me about twenty to thirty feet away from the car. In a knick of time too, because the damn thing exploded a few seconds later. She used the blouse that she was wearing to put pressure on my wound. After that, I blacked out.”

 

“A few hours later, I wake up at one of the local hospitals, not knowing how I got there. One of the agents in charge of the operation told me how Rachel was able to call him and tell him everything that had happened. He and the rest of his agents moved in on the compound quickly and got me to the hospital before I bleed out completely.” he finishes and stares at Quinn to gage her reaction.

 

“Not bad. But that still doesn't mean we should trust her.” Quinn says dismissively. Secretly, she has gained a little more respect for Berry, but that doesn't mean she's off the hook when it comes to Brody. Quinn still wanted to clear some things up with the liaison.

 

“Just give her a chance to tell her part in this whole mess Fabray, before you condemn her for something she may not have had anything to do with at all.” Jesse reasons. Quinn says nothing to him in return and turns her eyes back to the road.

 

Ten minutes later, they pull up a couple of houses away from the cozy little one story house that Brody was staying in. Quinn pulls her Charger next to the side walk and parks it next to the tree.

 

“I can't believe this.” Jesse complains. “ I've been a director less than twenty-four hours and I'm back on the street.”

 

“It's great isn't it.” Quinn says giving him a sardonic smile. Jesse glares at her, crossing his arms over his chest.

 

“ No Lucy, it isn't.” Jesse says mockingly. He jumped at the chance at being the new director of NCIS because it meant that he wouldn't have to pound the pavement anymore. And now he was out here with Quinn, like he had been eight years ago. _So much for upward mobility._

 

“ Come on Jesse, you know you love this. “ Quinn insists as she pokes him in the shoulder. “What could be better than hunting down the bad guys with your old partner?”

 

“I can think of a few things that are better than being on a stake out with you.” Jesse mumbles as he puts his hands in his pocket.

 

“Such as?” Quinn asks, putting a hand on her hip.

 

“Truthfully? I'd rather be in bed sleeping.” Jesse says shrugging his shoulders.

 

“Boo, that's boring. What happened to the Jesse St. James from Marseilles? Quinn says cheekily, knowing that was a sore spot for the director.

 

“Don't you dare, Fabray-” Jesse warns as Quinn smirks in his direction.

 

“It was August and we were stuck in that attic with no air. Photographing everyone who boarded that Lebanese trawler.” the senior agent fondly mocks. “Then on the second night you brought that-”

 

Jesse leans over her seat putting his hand over his mouth. The Marseilles stakeout was something they never expressively talked about in public. At least he did not talk about it in public. It was one of the most embarrassing nights of his life and he would rather forget it.

 

“If you like being employed, you'll stop while you're ahead Fabray.” Jesse warns her stern. “ I got an interesting call today.”

 

“You stay with NCIS long enough, you'll get plenty of interesting calls, director.” Quinn said sarcastically.

 

“It was from Brooke McKenzie.” Jesse says.

 

Quinn's smile drops as the mood suddenly becomes somber. She looks down at her lap.

 

“Really? How is she doing?” Quinn asks softly.

 

“About as well as to be expected after losing her sister. But what she really wanted to know was why she couldn't get a hold of you. There were some things that she wanted to know about the funeral on Saturday.” he says carefully as he watches his friend's jaw tighten. “I told her that I'd talk to you about it and get back to her immediately.”

 

“Thanks.” Quinn says softly, not looking at him.

 

“So what's really going on Quinn? And don't say the case, because as it stands now, you have none.” Jesse asks placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.

 

Quinn looks out into the empty road and sighs. She didn't know what he wanted to hear first. Why she couldn't bear the thought of speaking to Dani's sister without drinking both bottles of her good bourbon first, so that she wouldn't feel guilty? Or why she was once again putting the job first instead of grieving and offering some sort of comfort to the remaining members of Dani's immediate family? Or did he want to know that if she wasn't working as hard as she was to bring Brody to justice because it meant that she didn't have to remember what a terrible wife the agent had been to her?

 

Before the senior agent could answer him, Quinn looks up and spots the headlights of a black Chevy Suburban approaching them.

 

“Hand me the binoculars underneath your seat.” Quinn says promptly.

 

Jesse complies and reaches underneath his seat, pulling out the black binoculars. Quinn aims them at the license plate and sees that it is a Virginia plate with the same numbers that Sam had given her earlier.

 

“What?” Jesse asks glancing at her questioningly.Quinn points towards the SUV that was getting closer to them.

 

“It's Brody's SUV.” she replies. The special agent gives him the binoculars so that he could see the plate for himself. Then she reaches into her holster and pulls out her Sig.

 

Suddenly, the driver's window of the SUV opens up and the barrel of a Brava 51 appears out of the window.

 

“Shooter!” Jesse yells

 

Jesse and Quinn quickly duck underneath their seats, with their hands covering their heads, as a couple of rounds worth of bullets fly through windshield on the passenger side.

 

“Stay down!” Quinn orders, getting up from the floor and sitting up in the seat. She pulls the Charger forward, trying to get next the black Suburban before stopping it as the gunshots continue to assault their car. The SUV continued to block their way, so the agent quickly turns the wheel and begins driving along the sidewalk.

 

As they begin to catch up with the SUV, it suddenly comes to a stop. Quinn watches as the sniper flees the vehicle. She brings the car to a stop onto the pavement and leaps out of the car, with Jesse following close behind her, and chases after the sniper. They begin shooting at the fleeting sniper, who only travels a couple of blocks away from his vehicle before the barrage of bullets coming from the NCIS agents bring him to a sudden halt. His body falls face first onto the sidewalk as Quinn and Jesse rush over to the sniper.

 

Quinn approaches the body carefully, with her service weapon still aimed at the sniper. When she sees that the body is not moving, she puts her gun away and turns the assailant over onto his back. Her eyes widen with fury as she steps away from the body, shoving Jesse in the process.

 

Jesse approaches the body and he raises his eyebrow, in disappointment.

 

“You know, I expected Weston to look a bit older than this.” Jesse states casually. Quinn glares at him, while searching through one of the pockets of her black khakis and pulls out her phone.

 

“That's because he is” Quinn seethes before turning away from her partner. _Damn it Brody! How in the hell do you keep getting away!_

* * *

 

**11:30 am**

**Autopsy**

 

“Gunshot number three is located under the right clavicle. Appears to be a distant wound from the absence of shooting and stippling.” Shelby says clinically as she takes her pen and points it to the clavicle. “ Gunshot number four is located six centimeters to the left. Appears to be a distant wound from the absence of shooting and stippling-”

 

“It's a miracle boss. He was shooting to kill him” Sam says as he gets of the wall and points towards the director. “ and not you, just like he did with Dani and Tina. It's funny how he went after women, until he got to the director.”

 

A newly changed Jesse and Quinn glare pointedly at the oblivious agent. Before they could say anything, Tina walks past Sam with a folder in her hand.

 

“You're really not going to like this, Fabray.” Tina says as the blond senior agent turns toward her crossing her arms. _Can't get any worse than it already is now._

 

“All of the .308 full metal jacket rounds recovered from the shooting came from this Bravo 51 rifle, dropped by the sniper you shot last night.” Tina finishes, handing the file over to her boss.

 

Quinn takes the files away and looks at them for herself in disbelief. _None of this can be right, there's no way._

 

Santana walks out of the silver doors with a folder of her own and also changed into a black pair of pants and a burgundy shirt and a solemn expression. Puck followed closely behind with his hands in his pockets looking down.

 

“Apparently Mohammad Esfiri was a homegrown terrorist.” Santana says pointing to the dead man on the table and then handing the file over to Quinn. The senior agent then hands the file Tina gave her over to Jesse.

 

“Born in Cleveland, he was a ardent follower of radical Islam who was promised martyrdom-”

 

Jesse closes Tina's file and hands it back over to the forensic scientist, hearing enough of the evidence. He was satisfied that this was the man who killed Danielle and he was ready to call this case a success. Although there were still a few questions that lingered in his mind about everything that's happened, but with the way Quinn is right now, he decided to keep them to himself. _Maybe when Quinn has put this behind her in a while, I'll bring it up again._

 

“Ms. Cohen-Chang confirmed that the sniper rifle we recovered last night was the weapon used to murder Special Agent Danielle McKenzie. And with no other evidence to suggest the contrary, it appears that Mohammad Esifiri was the sniper.” Jesse announces. He looks around the room to see a couple of expressions of disbelief to Shelby looking down at her feet. He looks at Quinn and sees that the senior agent seems to be two seconds away from ripping his head off.

 

“ I believe it's safe for your team to go home Fabray.” Jesse suggests before turning his attention to the rest of the team. “Special Agent McKenzie's funeral is in Virginia beach on Sunday afternoon at her family's estate. I expect you all to be here tomorrow at o-eight hundred to be prepared to leave. Sec Nav has graciously offered a few of their motorcades to us and Danielle's surviving relatives as well as paying for our hotel accommodations. Go home, get some rest.” Jesse gives the team a look of dismissal and waves them off. It takes a couple of for them to move but eventually, they all take the hint and everyone walks out of autopsy, with the exception of Jesse, Shelby and Agent Fabray.

 

Jesse raises an eyebrow at his friend.

 

“What about you, Quinn?” Jesse asks sternly.

 

“You and I both know Mohammad Esifiri did _not_ kill Dani.” Quinn says defiantly. “ And he certainly didn't shoot at Tina!”

 

“You're not infallible Fabray, no matter what your gut is telling you!” Jesse says frustrated. “Brody isn't trying to kill you, but this obsession with him might!” Jesse takes a deep breath, relieved that he was finally saying what was on his mind about Brody. At first he may have thought that Brody might have been involved somehow, now he's not so sure. They had their sniper lying on the table, why couldn't that make the senior agent happy? Why did Quinn need for Brody to be the sniper so badly?

 

Quinn looks down and some of her hair gets in her face. She didn't want to make the situation worse by snapping at her friend, but sometimes Jesse could be so blind.

 

The senior agent raises her head and walks over to the other side of Esifiri's table and studies at the now pale young man. He could certainly pass for Brody's younger brother, with the exception of his jet black hair. She wonders what Brody could have possibly offered him to do what he did.

 

Hazel eyes widen and looks over to the petulant director.

 

“ Hey Jesse.” Quinn asks quietly.

 

“What Quinn.” the director replies tiredly.

 

“ Why did he only shoot on your side of the car last night?”

 

Jesse shrugs his shoulders and walks over to the table to stand next to Quinn. He did wonder why Mohammad would go through all of the trouble firing at him when he could have easily killed Quinn. Brown eyes widen as the director realizes that Quinn was not his target at all, that he was.

 

“ I suppose you were right.” Jesse concedes, nodding his head. “He was trying to kill the women you worked with. But that doesn't explain why he was trying to kill me though? Last time I checked I wasn't a woman.”

 

“He broke his pattern, with you. I think at first he wanted to get rid of the women I worked with, but when he realized that you weren't a woman, his objective changed.” Quinn explains. “ He could have easily gone after Santana when she was tailing Berry. And he could have killed Shelby when she was riding with him, but he didn't. I don't think he's going after women primarily anymore, I think he's targeting the people who are closest to me first before going after the rest.”

 

Jesse shakes his head, still not one hundred percent convinced of Quinn's theory. He watches Shelby pull something up on her computer before turning back to an exasperated senior agent.

 

“How did he know you were in the car? I called you at the spur of the moment.” Quinn points out. “ I parked in the dark, he couldn't see through our windshield, even with a scope.”

 

The senior agent points to the body on the table. “That guy was not sent here to kill. He was sent here to die.”

 

Jesse takes a deep breath in defeat. He hated to admit it, but the senior agent did have a point. There was no way a nineteen year old kid from Cleveland could have the precision, let alone the accuracy to make the kind of shot that killed Agent McKenzie. And he didn't want to rule out the possibility that Brody had the same kind of trace on Quinn's phone that he knew his control officer had on his. The problem was they did not have enough evidence to back up any of these claims but he did have a contact who could get them the evidence. And Jesse was skeptical to go to this person without a more convincing argument.

 

“ No, no one's going to do that.” Jesse says, testing the agent.

 

“ Come on, Jesse! Hamas suicide bombers blow themselves up all the time! It doesn't matter how a martyr dies, as long as it's for the jihad! Mohammad, last night he died for rivers of honey and seventy two virgins!” Quinn finishes sarcastically.

 

Shelby looks up from her computer and turns to the two arguing agents. She wanted to wait until Quinn was alone before she told her the news, but the medical examiner figures that she's hidden enough from the senior agent and this information could help her make it up to the blond special agent.

 

“I might have something a little more concrete to help back up Agent Fabray's case.” Shelby interrupts, watching as the two agents stare at her curiously. Jesse and Quinn look at her surprised and then walk over to Shelby's computer, leaning over her.

 

“A few weeks ago, I received an inquiry from a colleague over at Metro who needed help finding a lead for a cold case from last year. It involved the shooting death of ATF agent Douglas Newborn and his wife Levena Ezra Newborn, a former Mossad officer in Fairfax. They were found lying in bed, both shot and killed at point blank range.” Shelby explains, pulling up the photos of the crime scene. Jesse had to turn his head away for a moment after seeing the grizzly scene before him. Blood practically covered the head board and portion of the back of the husband's head had been missing. His wife had not faired better as her head was slumped over her husband's shoulder and her eyes blank. Some of the blood had oozed out of the back of her skull and dripped onto her husband's shoulder.

 

“Both were shot with .308 Lapua full metal jackets belonging to a Brava 51. Coincidentally, the sniper did not police his brass for these murders either. They had two children, both of them weren't home at the time, thank god. They had been staying at Doug's parents house for the weekend.” Shelby continues, watching Quinn shake her head.

 

“Anyway, they tried to see if they could trace the bullets back to the buyer, but unfortunately they came up empty. I honestly couldn't advise him what they could do next, since no gun was left at the scene and the trail had long since run cold. So I asked him why they were revisiting this case and he told me that there was another murder that had happened the night before that occurred under nearly identical circumstances. A former US diplomat for Israel, Levi Hellman, was shot and killed at point blank range in his car outside of a restaurant that he frequented in Georgetown. Same brass and bullets, but no gun and no other evidence left behind.”

 

“The possibility that these two murders could have been connected to Danielle's murder didn't occur to me until after I got home last night. I thought about something Brody told me when he held me captive about how he would have killed you and Dani if he were responsible for her death.” Shelby finishes, clicking out of the picture and moving on the next one in the file. “ He said that he would have broken into your house, subdued Jethro and killed you both with your rifle. It bothered me at how specific he was, so I changed and came back here immediately and looked the case over again.”

 

The medical examiner pulls up a picture of a brown and black German Sheppard that looked as if it were sleeping at a weird angle. “ This was Toby, the family dog. The responding police officers found him at the front door with his neck broken.” She looks up to see Jesse with a horrified expression on his face.

 

“As horrifying as this murder and the diplomat's murder is, how does this have anything to do with Brody?” Jesse asks.

 

“See that's what I thought too. Until I did a little more digging into the background of each of our victims.” Shelby says as she closes out the photos and pulls up another file. “I have some friends over at Mossad, who gave me some information that proved to be useful on Levena and Levi.”

 

The medical examiner pulls up a newspaper article of a smiling Levena shaking the hand of an older man wearing a suit who had the same striking blue eyes as Brody, with certain parts of his brown hair greying. “Levena was Brody's commanding officer in Mossad and trained him when he first started out at the agency. She also happened to be good friends with his father, Executive Director Xavier Weston.”

 

“Levi also spent time working in Mossad, along side Xavier Weston when he was an agent twenty years ago during his time at the CIA. Director Weston also gave Hellman a glowing recommendation when he was looking to become a diplomat.” Shelby finishes.

 

“Do you think Director Weston is involved with any of these other murders?” Jesse asks, still trying to absorb this new information.

 

“No. When Levena was murdered Xavier was in South Africa on vacation with his daughter and young son. The night Levi was murdered, he was on the phone with me catching up.” Shelby tells him.

 

Quinn looks at the medical examiner curiously with a half smirk, silently asking how she would know all of this, as Shelby glares at her. “We're friends who went out on a couple of dates when he was still working as a Mossad officer. He visits me whenever he's in town and I talk to him about Beth occasionally. So don't you start Agent Fabray.”

 

“So why do you think Brody's doing any of this and why would he be coming after Quinn?” the director asks, wanting to get back on topic.

 

“I have no idea how Dani or Quinn got involved in any of this. But I do think, if he's behind the other three murders, that maybe he's trying to send some sort of message to his father.” Shelby concludes. “There have been rumors going around Mossad that Eli David is planning on retiring soon and Xavier is a prime candidate to take over the agency when does. Maybe Brody's trying to sabotage his chance with that?”

 

“If he's going after the people who are in his father's inner circle, then I think we all know who his next target might be.” Quinn says knowingly. _Berry, you really are in trouble now._

 

Jesse and Shelby solemnly looks down and Jesse steps away from them. He pinches the bridge of his nose and closes his eyes, not believing that he was still entertaining Quinn's conspiracy theory. _Maybe she was right after all._

 

“I'm not saying that either of you are right, but if you are, how do we prove it?” the director asks, giving in.

 

“Well, control officers keep travelogues on each of their charges. Maybe if you could get a hold of those and Rachel's phone records, Sam could track her calls and place Brody in those places during the time of the murders.” Shelby suggests.

 

Jesse nods and hastily walks out of autopsy. Quinn glances at the medical examiner appreciatively, before following closely behind the director.

 

The senior agent jogs down the hallway until she catches up to the director. She grabs his arm turning him to face her and smiles.

 

“We huh? Did you just join my side director?” Quinn teases while grinning. Jesse rolls his eyes. He hated how conceded Agent Fabray could be at times.

 

“ I've always been on your side, Fabray.” Jesse tells her, crossing his arms. “Now what do we do, assuming that your suspicions are correct.”

 

“ We kill Brody before he can get to me. Or Rachel.” Quinn said simply.

 

* * *

 

**12:15 pm**

**Autopsy**

 

Santana and Sam stare down at Dani's body solemnly while Puck stood off to the side on one of the lockers. The agents have been staring at her silently for the last ten minutes, trying to take everything in as they prepare to say their final goodbyes to their colleague and friend. The funeral home that was going to be in charge of burying Dani would be here in a couple of hours to take her body to their base in Virginia beach.

 

A soft smile appears on Sam's lips, relieved that Dani hadn't looked half as bad as he thought she would be. Shelby had done an excellent job with the mortuary putty, he could barely see the scathing bullet wound. He thought that the fallen agent had look as peaceful as she had a few days ago, when she was sleeping under her desk.

 

“Told you she looked good.” Puck said as he approached the body. “Probie and Lopez wouldn't believe me though. They thought you would look like one zombies from the Walking Dead.”

Puck practically had to drag the other two agents by their ears to go down and see her. Well, the probie's ear anyway, he wouldn't go ten feet within Santana's ears without a death wish.

 

“Did not.” Sam says petulantly. _More like Return of the living dead. But I doubt Puckerman has ever heard of it._

 

“Don't lie to the dead, Evans. Not cool.” Puck teases giving him a sly grin. Sam glances down at his shoes briefly before turning to talk to Dani.

 

“Well, I was a little afraid.” Sam admits bashfully.

 

“Oh please. The kid was terrified.”Puck exaggerates, talking to Dani as well. He looks over at Santana, who was only staring blankly at the corpse, trying to fight the tears that had formed in her eyes.

 

“But it took a lot of guts to come down here. Showed how much _they_ cared for you.” Puck says, directing that last bit towards Santana.

 

The other junior agent finally looks up towards Puck, who is smiling softly at him. After listening to him going on and on about saying their goodbyes to Dani, Santana had ventured down to autopsy on her own.She opened up the drawer to the locker hesitantly and saw what used to be her friend lying there made it all to real for her. Her friend and her partner was gone forever. She spent the next couple of minutes crying and kept a hand over her mouth so no one could hear her wailing. When she heard Sam and Puck come into autopsy, Santana made sure to wipe her tears away so that the other two agents couldn't see them.

 

“ I really did like you Dani. A lot.” Santana says quietly, bidding one last farewell to the fallen agent. She walks away from the table and towards the silver doors of autopsy, just as Puck and Sam take the sheet and place it over Agent McKenzie's body.

 

* * *

 

**12:45 pm**

 

Quinn leans back on the empty park bench, watching the rain fall down on her head. The sun had come out a few minutes ago, yet it was still pouring outside. It all seem to fit Quinn's current state of mind at the moment.The rain pelted heavily down on her as she looks up at the sky. The sun was starting to come out from it's cloudy barrier. She was happy that the case was on it's way to a conclusion, but there was still something inside of her that still felt empty.

 

When Jesse left her to back to his office, she decided to go outside and call Brooke back. Their brief conversation with Dani's older sister was pleasant enough. Brooke told her about the plans for Sunday's ceremony and the senior agent readily agreed with anything the older woman wanted to do. Quinn tried to apologize to the psychologist for not taking a more active role in planning her wife's funeral, but was quickly brushed off as Brooke told her it was more important to her to catch Dani's killer and put him away. When the conversation ended, the senior agent plopped down onto the bench and covered her eyes.

 

"It's raining, Fabray. You smell like a wet dog.” a voice from behind her says.

 

The special agent takes her hands off of her face and looks up to see one of the last things she wanted to see at the moment. A smirking Agent Wilde staring down at her curiously with a black umbrella protecting her perfect, loosely curled at the end blond hair. _Great a visit from the wicked witch of the CIA is paying me a visit. What did I do to deserve this?_ Quinn ponders to herself as she sits up on the bench.

 

She and Kitty had a very complicated friendship that consisted of three things, that strangely made their relationship functional. Constantly trying to one up each other, in spite of the fact that they both worked for different agencies. Their relentless drive to make their professional lives as miserable as possible. Whenever the opportunity presented itself, Kitty would find a way to stonewall NCIS on their cases and in return, the senior agent made sure to put the CIA operative in as many compromising positions as she could.

 

The only thing the two agents seemed to agree on, besides being married to their jobs, is a mutual hatred of a shared ex girlfriend who did her best to bring misery into their already miserable existence. They both happened to be dating her at the same time for a year and a half without each other knowing it. In the end, Sugar was the only one who walked away from the relationship unscathed and ended up marrying a computer nerd who worked in Homeland Security named Artie, leaving both of them into the dust.

 

Thankfully, none of the things that made their friendship work didn't involve talking about their feelings or baring their souls to one another. Because feeling for some reason, just didn't work for them and always seemed to be awkward whenever either one of them tried to broach the subject. So they both silently agree to never bring up any feelings at all to save themselves the embarrassment.

 

Agent Wilde doesn't wait for the invitation and just sits down next to the soaking special agent.

 

“Well, there was one...here, underneath the bench when I got here.” Quinn said causally, not looking at her sometimes friend and shrugs her shoulders. “I put him in the gazebo.”

 

The CIA operative turns her head facing the senior agent, in confusion for a moment before looking behind her at the white monument. Low and behold, she sees a scraggly looking terrier lying underneath the bench of the gazebo.

 

“Then why aren't you in there? ” Agent Wilde says pointing towards the gazebo behind them.

 

“Dog smells like hell.” Quinn says absentmindedly as she crosses her arms shivering. _Maybe it wasn't the best idea to come out here without a umbrella at least._

 

“Why didn't you just leave him under-” the shorter blond started to say, but stopped herself. In all the years she has known Quinn, nothing that the NCIS agent did make sense, so why should this. She shakes her head. “Never mind, Fabray.”

 

“ If I ask you something, Kitty, are you going to lie to me.” Quinn asks somberly.

 

Kitty takes a deep breath and turns around facing the landscape of the empty park. “Depends on the question.”

 

The two spent another couple of minutes in silence. Agent Wilde had learned about Dani's death a few hours ago, after coming back from a last minute mission in Nebraska. The shorter blond had gone to Quinn's desk to see if the senior agent had been there, only to find that the senior agent had stepped out. She wasn't all that surprised that the senior agent hadn't called her about it yet, since their relationship didn't involve talking about their feelings with each other. But the operative was surprised at how worse for wear the senior agent had been. In the nine years she had known the senior agent, Kitty had never seen her look as melancholy as she seemed to be. It was a new frontier for the CIA operative and she just didn't know how to talk to the mourning agent without lying to her more than the special agent had already been lied to.

 

“ What was Brody Weston's real mission here?” Quinn asks quietly.

 

The CIA operative started nervously picking at the wooden end of her umbrella. She honestly didn't know what Agent Weston was still doing here. Mossad had stopped all communications with Director Martinez weeks ago about the case, saying that the CIA's assistance on this particular assignment was no longer necessary. And yet she still could not release any details on the case because it was technically still going on, despite Brody's lack of cooperation.

 

“I'm not going to lie to you.” Kitty starts off. Blue eyes turn facing Quinn, who was staring at her intently.

 

“Mossad lies to the CIA. They lie to us, I lie to you.” Kitty states simply.

 

“I don't know who you lie to anymore, being at the bottom of the armed Fed food chain... and now widowed.” Kitty tells her, but flinches at the end realizing that it might have been too soon.

 

Quinn on the other hand, smirks at her. She was happy that her sometimes friend seemed to be the only in Quinn's life right now not walking on eggshells around her and just act normally around her.

 

“So, you don't know.” Quinn teases.

 

“Correct. I do not know what he is still doing in DC.” Kitty finishes rolling her eyes.

 

“ You ever go to the movies?” Kitty asks changing the subject. The CIA operative might not be able to reveal certain details about the case, but there was nothing in her contract that said that she couldn't nudge the senior agent in the right direction.

 

“Sometimes but not recently. I prefer to take photographs and build boats in my basement.” Quinn said, wondering what point Kitty was trying to make now.

 

Agent Wilde stands up and brushes off the imaginary lint off of her black trench coat and matching slacks. “Well, you and that dog are going to need one. Why don't you get out of the rain Quinn and go watch a movie.”

 

Quinn raises an eyebrow at the CIA operative, wondering what Wilde could have up her sleeve, as the agent in question subtly nods her head in return.

 

“You have a film in mind?” Quinn asks, playing along.

 

“It's not in theaters anymore, but you could probably find it on Netflix, Red box or something.” Kitty finishes cryptically.

 

Quinn smiles at Agent Wilde as she prepares to walk away. Maybe she didn't give the CIA operative enough credit for telling her exactly what she needed to know without actually telling her.

 

“Sounds like a good idea. Good thing to do on a rainy afternoon. What's the name of this film?”

 

* * *

 

**1:20 pm**

**Bullpen**

 

“The Peacemaker. George Clooney, Nicole Kidman, directed by Mimi Leder.” Puck says, holding up said DVD in his hands. He places one of his khaki covered legs on top of the other as he tries explaining the film to Santana and Sam, who were working on their reports diligently.

 

The boss had called him twenty minutes ago, asking him to find the movie for her. When he asked her why, she told him that she wanted the team to get together in the MTAC room to watch it together, as her token of gratitude for how hard they've all been working on this case . Excitedly, he ran off to the nearest electronics store and found a copy of it in the five dollar bin. The junior agent returned giddily to his desk and waited impatiently for the boss to return. He also picked up a couple of bags of popcorn from the nearest gas station for their movie extravaganza and was currently waiting for some guy a couple of cubicles over to be done with the microwave.

 

“Made it in '97. It's a real action flick.” Puck explains as Sam looks up at him and watches intently.

 

“Clooney and Kidman have to find this stolen nuclear weapon before it's used by terrorists. I can't believe you never saw it.”

 

Before Sam could answer his excited mentor, the clicking of low heels catches the three agent's attention. Sam, Puck and Santana look over to see Officer Berry strutting angrily into the direction of the bullpen. She had apparently changed into a black pair of hip hugging jeans and a white v neck shirt that was tucked in. With her trusted gun strapped comfortably on her hip.

 

Santana smiles at the sight as she causally turns back to her work as Puck and Sam look on. Sam was afraid of what Rachel could possibly be here for while Puck couldn't help but smirk in appreciation at how hot the MILF looked right now.

 

Rachel finally stops at the entrance of the bullpen and puts her hands on her hips.

 

“Where is Fabray?” Rachel asks impatiently looking directly at Agent Puckerman,skipping the small talk.

 

The officer had not gotten that much sleep and neither had her screaming two year old as a couple of NCIS agent bursted into her room with a warrant in hand. They also informed her that she was to report to the Naval Yard immediately without telling her why and that they would have other agents searching her house as well. Before she came upstairs, the officer had dropped by Shelby's office at the morgue and begged the medical examiner to look after Beth while she went to talk to Agent Fabray. Luckily for her, Shelby was in the middle of cleaning up, before taking the rest of the day off. The medical examiner only stuck around to make sure that Agent McKenzie's body was transferred over to the funeral home as carefully and efficiently as possible. Shelby gladly took Beth out of her hands as she shooed Rachel to go do whatever it was that she had to do upstairs, without looking at her.

 

“ You know, that's the first question you asked me when we met.” Puck teasingly points out.

 

“No, the first question was “were having phone sex.” Rachel corrects, crossing her arms as brown eyes stare at him menancingly.

 

Santana covers her hand over her mouth and looks over at the blushing junior agent disgustedly. Sam, on the other hand, was trying his best not to laugh at his superior knowing that he was in striking range.

 

Suddenly, the doors open to MTAC and a raven haired man in a headset wearing a light purple button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up that coordinated nicely with his grey pants, came out of MTAC. With a smirking and dry Agent Fabray smiling slightly behind him. She was not wearing her baby blue shirt anymore and instead opted for a forest green button up instead.

 

All the occupants of the Bullpen glanced up at the two people coming out of the bullpen.

 

“Officer Berry. Assistant Director Hiram Berry is on teleconference for you.” the man says formally and quickly exits back into the doors of the conference room.

 

Rachel pales slightly as her mouth forms into a tiny 'o' and her eyes widen as she stood frozen in fear. The tired officer was in no mood to deal with whatever her father had planned for her upstairs. Normally, he wouldn't bother to check in on her cases, that was mostly handled by Deputy Director Weston. She couldn't imagine the kind of chewing out that was waiting for her behind those doors. _Whatever it is must be bad if_ _ **he's**_ _getting involved._

 

“Assistant Director Berry?” Rachel asks stuttering.

 

Santana looks on amused. “Would that be Daddy, Berry.”

 

Rachel glares hard at the junior agent, who gleefully returned the high five that her partner was giving her.

 

“Berry is a common Israeli last name, Agent Lopez.”

 

“Bullshit Berry, but nice attempt babe.” Puck says victoriously.

 

“You still didn't answer my question Smurf. Is your daddy calling to put you in time out on the way back to Israel?” Santana asks mockingly.

 

Taking a deep breath, Rachel walks away from the bullpen and up the stairs to MTAC, with the sounds of Sam, Santana and Puck's laughter echoing throughout the room. She was not going give the three agents the satisfaction of knowing that their laughter was hurting her. They had brought back bad memories of the kids who relentlessly tormented her in her more formative years for her ambition and drive. Rachel had resolved to do to the agents downstairs, what she did to her classmates who were stuck in their dead end jobs back home while she was excelling in the CIA. She was going to walk up stairs with her head held high and act like they weren't worth her time. The officer almost wanted to laughWith her head held high, Rachel gets to the last step, before making her way to the double blue doors.

 

When she approaches Agent Fabray, she sees the self satisfied smirk adorning her face. The Mossad/CIA operative would have loved nothing more than to punch that irritating smirk right off of her face. She nods curtly in Agent Fabray's direction and then stepping into the room. Before the door closes, the Mossad officer could swear that hazel eyes were still scrutinizing her.

 

The short haired blond special agent takes one last look at Berry before she turns her attention back to the bullpen. She walks over to the railing of the building and watches as their laughter slowly begins to die. Puck looks up at her while holding the movie up in front of his chest.

 

“ They lose a nuke boss?” Puck asks pointing to the movie as Agent Fabray shakes her head.

 

“According to the Assistant Director, Israel has no nukes.” Quinn said as she leans over the railing.

 

“Boss?” Sam asks as he puts his paperwork off to the side. Santana copies the probie's action and sits her head on the elbows of her desk.

 

“They have a power plant in Dimona, where a small amount of plutonium is missing.” Quinn answers.

 

Three sets of eyes widen and glance each other's way as Santana decides to ask the question on everyone else's mind.

 

“Hamas is making a bomb?” Santana asks skeptically. _It all makes sense now. That bastard._

 

Quinn nods.

 

“They have a core, but no detonator. Brody's job was to buy the Krypton trigger. When he delivers it to the Hamas cell with the plutonium, Mossad grabs them.” the senior agent finishes, giving the agents downstairs time to digest this new information. When the confusion disappears from their eyes, Agent Fabray continues on.

 

“ Only, he's a little behind schedule and they're getting nervous.” Quinn finishes with a smile. Not waiting for a response, the senior agent continues on.

 

“ Assistant Director Berry is up here, right now, ordering Rachel to cooperate.” The special agent in charge says victoriously.

 

The three agents downstairs sit stunned, not knowing if they want to get up and cry or ditch the little amount of paper work that they still had to complete and go bar hopping hours early. It was over and now they had Brody and the Mossad officer right where they wanted them. They would find something to finally link Brody to Danielle's death and it would be before the funeral. And for Santana, the fact that they would be giving Rachel the third degree, was just an added bonus.

 

Quinn flinches a little as the sound of the doors behind her slamming shut startle her a little. And a brunette blur flies past her down the steps and past the bullpen in record time. She watches as Officer Berry marches past the perplexed agents in the bullpen and in the direction of the interrogation rooms. The blond steps away from her post on the railing and follows the same route as the brunette.

 

Three heads turn to look at the two and then each other. Puck runs over to the microwave, with his bags of popcorn in hand and stuffs it into the microwave quickly. Santana and Sam abruptly get up from their desks, not bothering to push in their chairs. They head in the direction of their boss and before they disappear out of sight, Santana happily looks over her shoulder at the antsy junior agent.

 

“Hey Puckerman! Make sure you bring your camera phone with you. I have a feeling this interrogation might be pay-per-view worthy!” Santana shouts as she and Sam disappear into the hallway. She sees the mohawked agent pat down on the phone in his pants pocket as his attention turns back to the microwave.

 

_Berry, the Boss is going to eat you alive._ Santana thinks jovially as a mischievous grin forms on her face.

 

 


	9. Get Brody

**1:55 pm**

**Interrogation**

 

Rachel sat up straight in her chair with one of her hands covering the other, staring blankly at the dull gray wall in front of her, as she patiently waited for Agent Fabray's return. She refused to look over at the one way mirror knowing that the NCIS agents were just waiting for the fireworks to begin. Agent Lopez had escorted her in here earlier to collect her phone. There were two other agents on the way to her house to collect all of her travelogues and laptop to bring back to the Naval Yard. The control officer did not want to give them anymore satisfaction than they were already getting at being able to witness her humiliation for their own personal entertainment. On the outside, the liaison was determined to give off the appearance of being calm, cool and collected, while allowing herself to seethe on the inside.

 

She was feeling a combination of emotions at the moment with the dominant feeling being anger. She was angry at her father Hiram for practically ripping into her in front of the Director of another agency and who was supposed to have been her future boss. Director Berry had made her out to be weak and incompetent for following the orders of Deputy Director Weston, just to make himself look better and more competent by comparison in Director David's eyes.

 

But it was the callous and uncaring glare that he gave her as he went into detail of all the things that he could and would do to make her life a living hell if she continued to defy Director St.James' orders, that sent her over the edge.

 

“ _Officer Berry, can you explain to me why Agent Weston is still in Washington DC and not on the flight_ _ **we**_ _arranged for him heading to Paris? Or why there was a terrorist alert placed on him by NCIS?”_

 

_Rachel stood on the top step of MTAC with her arms crossed tightly over herself, staring defiantly as Assistant Director Berry's cold, brown eyes glare angrily at her. She then sent a glare in the stoic Director St. James' direction, wondering why he put that on Brody's record as well. The graying haired man sat back in his black leather chair as he waited for the control officer to answer the question._

 

“ _Answer me Officer Berry.” Director Berry says impatiently._

 

“ _No, I do not have explanation, Director, sir. When I last spoke to Agent Weston,at around 0800 this morning, he assured me that he was close by the airport and would be there for take off at 1000.” Rachel informs him, speaking into the headset while fighting the urge to roll her eyes._

 

“ _NCIS has that alert on his passport because we have reason to believe that your operative, Agent Weston, has gone rogue. That his actions were directly responsible for the death of one of our field agents, profiler Danielle McKenzie.” Director St.James intervenes. “We also have reason to believe that he was also responsible for the murders of former US diplomat to Israel Levi Hellman, former Mossad Officer Levena Ezra and her husband ATF agent Douglas Newborn.”_

 

“ _He may also be actively targeting certain members of Special Agent in Charge Quinn Fabray's team, shooting into the lab of our forensic scientist Tina Cohen- Chang a couple of days ago. And myself last night when I accompanied Agent Fabray, to the house Mr. Weston was assigned to, in order to question him. We were ambushed by a Hamas connection working for him by the name of Mohammad Esifiri, who was killed in the attack.”_

 

_Rachel looks over at the NCIS director disbelievingly. She knew that Agent Fabray had blamed Brody for Agent McKenzie's murder, but she had no idea about the other murders. She had heard through the Mossad rumor mill that Officer Ezra's death had been the result of a home invasion gone wrong. She remembers being devastated to hear of Levena's death, since the woman had been her mentor when she first entered Mossad and taught her everything that she knew. She didn't want believe that Brody would be responsible for doing something like this.Especially while he was under her watch._

 

“ _I'll send over the case files for all four of these murders immediately and the crime scene photos from the forensics lab and Agent Fabray's car.” Jesse finishes adjusting his headset._

 

“ _These are some very serious allegations that you're leveling against my operative, Director St. James. What makes you think that Agent Weston had anything to do with these murders?” Director Berry asks._

 

“ _Each and every one of the victims, had some personal connection to either Brody or Deputy Director Xavier Weston. Agent Danielle McKenzie knew Agent Weston from an undercover joint operation with the CIA five years ago. Apparently Agent McKenzie had told one of my agents, in confidence, that he had become infatuated with her.” Director St. James explains._

 

_Rachel looks over at him with flicker of hurt reflecting in her eyes. She remembers asking Brody about that assignment and his partner_

 

“ _Director St. James, you should know better than to base your investigation around hearsay” he says picking up a stack of papers on his desk and shuffles them around._

 

“ _He's held her hostage, along with our Medical Examiner Dr.Corcoran and shot her former assistant Matthew Rutherford.”_

 

“ _Brody was deep undercover and he was doing anything necessary to keep three years worth of work in tact. Try again,Mr. St. James.” Director Berry counters disinterestedly._

 

“ _A year after that, he kidnapped her once again.” Jesse continues on, watching Director Berry looks up, in confusion, from his paperwork. He then turns to look at the subdued officer._

 

“ _Interesting. That particular detail wasn't noted in your notes for the case-”_

 

“ _Director Weston thought that incident was on a need to know basis. After Little Creek, the members of his cell became suspicious, Director.” She quietly explains._

 

_Hiram stares at her as if he wants to remand her for not telling him about this. Bt he puts his head down and continues looking at his papers._

 

“ _What else do you have, Director?” Hiram asks._

 

“ _Yes, sir. Ambassador Hellman and Officer Ezra were both close, personal friends of your Deputy Director Xavier Weston. As you may know, Officer Ezra had trained Brody when he first began at Mossad. And diplomat Hellman was his godfather. The circumstances that they were murdered under were different, but they all happened to be murdered with a Bravo 51 sniper rifle with unpoliced brass left on the scene. We have reason to believe that Agent Weston plans on going after more people that had any relationship to the former Deputy Director.” Jesse finishes, waiting for some sort of reaction from the other Director._

 

_Rachel fights the urge to defend her charge just yet. There is no way that Brody would have killed anyone and left his brass behind. He never did that during the occasions where he was forced to kill someone, knowing that he would have been signing his death warrant if he did. Besides, Brody would never hurt his godfather or the woman who took him under his wing, especially after his mother's death._

 

_We don't have a clear motive yet to these unsolved homicides, but we would like the opportunity to investigate further into the matter and bring closure to each of the families as soon as possible We believe Agent Weston played a part in each of these murders.” Jesse replies as Director Berry nods for him to continue._

 

“ _The problem that my people have run into is that we're positive that we can connect your agent to these murders, but we are having trouble obtaining the necessary evidence that we need because his control officer, Ms. Berry-” Jesse says pointing to her “ Will not let us have any access to his travelogues and her phone records.”_

 

“ _Is this true Officer Berry?” the Director asks turning to her._

 

“ _Yes. NCIS is basing their case on their need for vengeance in the death of one of their own and flimsy, at best, circumstantial evidence. They haven't even asked me for a warrant for his logs and my records-” Rachel explains, but is interrupted by Jesse._

 

“ _We haven't asked for a warrant from her, out of an interagency courtesy. We figured we would give Officer Berry the opportunity to voluntarily offer up the information without involving the lawyers yet. But if that is what Ms.Berry is more comfortable with, I will go up to the legal team immediately and have the warrant for her by this afternoon.” Director St.James replies. He continues on before she could get another word in._

 

“ _It's also the reason why my agency has yet to alert the media about these incidents, in spite of their inquiries. We know how bad it could make Mossad look if the media got wind of the fact that a highly decorated NCIS Agent, a former US Diplomat, a former high ranking Mossad officer and an ATF agent, were all murdered by a suspected rogue agent under your watch. Especially so soon after your failed Little Creek operation. So we'd like to be able to keep this between the two agencies as long as you're willing to cooperate with us.”_

 

_The control officer watches the director put his hands under his chin as he quietly contemplates Director St. James' thinly veiled threat. She already knew that Director Berry was going to take his deal and that his hesitation was only a test for the new NCIS director. Her father had been looking for the perfect excuse to get Brody out of Mossad permanently for a long time now. He finally had a reason to now. If it meant selling her out to NCIS, Rachel had a feeling that he would not think twice about doing it._

 

_A slow, polite smile makes its way on Director Berry's face._

 

“ _Now I see why NCIS was so eager to give you the position of Director, Jesse. You have a bright future ahead of you.” Director Berry says chuckling as the NCIS director shyly smiles at him._

 

“ _Officer Berry will comply with your request and release her travelogues into your agency's custody.She will also release any cellphones that she may have in her possession and will happily answer any questions your agents may have for her. I do ask that you show discretion when looking at these travelogues and phone records, seeing as she is still in charge of agents who are currently under deep cover and I would hate if their assignments were compromised because of a leak from your side.”_

 

_Jesse smiles politely at the Assistant Director .“Thank you, Director. Discretion is also a priority of ours as well. My team is good at what they do and I can assure you that no information will be leaked from our end.”_

 

_Rachel's eyes widen as she looks on at the two men in disbelief._

 

“ _With all due respect DirectorBerry, you and I both know you don't have the kind of authority to order me to relinquish any of my records to you or NCIS. The only people who have the authority to do so is my **boss** Deputy Director Weston and Director David.-” Rachel says, refusing to end the matter without a fight. Director Berry's smile turns into a frown and for a moment, she sees a flash of anger flicker through his brown eyes._

 

“ _Not that I need to explain myself to you, **Officer** Berry, but I do have that authority. As of three hours ago, Deputy Director Weston has taken a temporary leave, citing personal issues. I have taken over any and all of his current case load and other duties as acting Deputy Director for the time being.” the Mossad Director tells her sharply._

 

_Rachel's mouth opens a bit as she looks on at her father in shock, trying her best to digest this new information. The last time she had spoken to her boss, as she was handing in her resignation papers, there was no indication that there was anything wrong with him. He even sounded a bit excited at the prospect of wrapping up the Hamas nuclear bombing case and moving onto something else, considering they have been working this operation since Rachel's return from maternity leave._

 

_It was not like Director Weston to up and abandon an operation, especially when they were so close to the end._

 

“ _Sir, if I may ask, why is Deputy Director Weston on leave?” Rachel asks tentatively. “I thought he wanted to wrap this operation so that our attention could be directed towards a relief mission?”_

 

_She watches his jaw clench and his fingers dig into his platinum watch._

 

“ _Things happen Officer Berry. None of which is any of your concern at the moment.” Director Berry says, giving her a look that the control officer knew all too well. He was telling her to drop it. That this was a Mossad matter and he refused to hash it out with NCIS' presence._

 

“ _I expect NCIS to be in possession of any and all records that you have pertaining to Agent Weston within the hour. Then you will immediately report to their interrogation room to answer any questions they may have for you.” Director Berry instructs. “And I do mean **any** questions.”_

 

“ _And if I still choose not to comply with your directive?” Rachel asks defiantly. “What if I conference with Director David himself and see what his opinion on the matter is. Seeing as he's the only one who seems to remember what objectivity in an investigation is.”_

 

_Director Berry sighs and glares angrily at her, holding his hands tightly against each other, trying in vein to release his tension. The control officer would have been tempted to smile, knowing that she was pushing last buttons, if it didn't mean that he was about to screw her over._

 

_Rachel knew that she was playing with fire, intentionally baiting her father like this.And she knew what the consequences were if anyone dared to make a fool out of Hiram Berry, especially in front of people with authority like him. But it was the only option she had left at her disposal in her last attempt to protect her charge. If they got one look at his questionable travelogues from the last year or so, it would only raise their suspicions more. She couldn't have NCIS throw away a year and a half's worth of work by arresting Brody just yet._

 

“ _I think you already know what I am capable of doing, officer.” Director Berry says darkly._

 

“ _But just in case you have forgotten, let me remind you.” Director Berry says and pauses for a moment. He leans back into his leather chair and glares menacingly in the defiant officer's direction._

 

“ _If you continue to defy a direct order for some a dime-a-dozen undercover operative, I will see to it that your contract with Mossad and by default the CIA are terminated immediately. As well as making sure that your security clearance is revoked.”_

 

_Rachel didn't flinch at his threat because she had already resigned from her position at Mossad and was just waiting for the CIA to process the paperwork for her transfer. She was just wrapping this case up as a favor to her boss, Director Weston._

 

“ _You can rest assured that I will make it exceedingly difficult for you to find work in any other government agencies anywhere. But that would be the least of your problems, Rachel.”_

 

“ _What are you saying, director?” Rachel asks, watching as his glare becomes a smirk._

 

“ _You are Agent Weston's control officer, are you not?” Director Berry asks, crossing one finely tailored black pants leg over another._

 

“ _Yes.”_

 

“ _So it would stand to reason that you would take full responsibility for any and all crimes Mr.Weston may have committed under your jurisdiction, would it not?”_

 

“ _Yes, Deputy Director.” Rachel answers hesitantly._

 

“ _Good. So it won't come as a surprise to you if I have NCIS immediately take you into their custody and charge you as an accessory to any and all of the things that Mr.Weston would be charged with, should you choose not to cooperate.” Director Berry asks smugly._

 

 

_The momentary burst of confidence that Rachel exhibited earlier quickly evaporates as the director's threat hangs over her head. In spite of it though, the brunette doesn't back down from her Hiram. Instead, she levels a ferocious glare back at him._

 

“ _Director St.James, is Virginia not a death penalty state in America?”_

 

“ _Yes director, we are a death penalty state.” Jesse answers, shooting a sympathetic look in her direction, but she ignores him. She was just as angry at him as she was at the Mossad Director at the moment and did not need or want his pity, especially now._

 

_Instead of looking at the other director, Rachel looks down at the ground_

 

“ _That's what I thought.” he says nodding in approval. “ All of the murders would be plenty of grounds for a life in prison without parole, if you're lucky. The thought of Beth growing up without both her mother and her father, I can't even conceive how devastating that would be for her. ” The director leans in on top of the desk, appearing to be disinterested. But the control officer knew it was just an act. He saw the glimmer of fear in her eyes at the mention of Beth and he was going to use it against her to get what he wanted.Hiram Berry had won, once again._

 

_Rachel rises up immediately and she glares angrily in Hiram's direction._

 

“ _I can't imagine what would happen to my poor granddaughter if her mother were to be held responsible for something Agent Weston might have done. I hear the foster care system in the US isn't necessarily the best. Maybe she'll luck out and be one of the ones that are adopted early on-”_

 

“ _You leave Beth out of this, Director. She is a civilian, not another pawn for Mossad to use.” Rachel hisses, pointing angrily at him. “Whatever punishment you want to inflict against **me** for my part in this fine, I'll accept the consequences. But don't you dare bring my child into this or pretend like you give a damn about either one of our welfares.”_

 

_The control officer tosses the headset onto the floor and makes her way to the MTAC doors. She turns around and glares over her shoulder at Director St. James._

 

“ _I will comply with each and every one of NCIS' requests, Director St.James.”_

 

_She turns back around and swings open the door hard. As she storms out of the room, Rachel hears one last order from Hiram to Jesse._

 

“ _Director St.James, if at any point in time Officer Berry decides to leave the room before you or Agent Fabray dismiss her, make sure to have one or more of your agents on hand to take her into your custody.”_

 

Rachel brushes her bangs out of her eyes and places her hand over her eyes. She wasn't surprised nor affected in the least by the new Deputy Director's threats. She had witnessed first hand the kind havoc Hiram Berry could wreak life if you crossed him in any way, no matter who you were. And he wouldn't stop until you were completely destroyed. So it didn't come as a surprise to her when he readily handed her over to NCIS.

 

But the moment he threatened to take Beth away from her, something inside of her snapped. He had no right to act like he could do whatever he'd like with Beth whenever he didn't get his way. Hiram had no right to pretend like he genuinely cared about her or her daughter's wellbeing, when he hasn't seen his granddaughter since her birth.

 

Rachel had heard of and seen first hand the many stories of Hiram's ability to sink to whatever level he needed in order to get the job done. But she didn't think he would use Beth as a means to an end in this mess. Unlike her parents, Beth has nothing to do with Mossad, and if Rachel has anything to say about it, she hopefully never would. It made her seethe to think that the director was beginning to stake his claim to Beth, as if he owned her and she was there for the sole use of Mossad. It was all the more reason for her to resign her position and get away from Hiram, Mossad and more importantly, Brody.

 

Rachel leans back further causing the chair to tilt, and stares tiredly into the bright light of the lamp. She was helpless to stop her thoughts from going back to the man who was responsible for her being there in the first place. Brody. The control officer was used to cleaning up Brody's messes. This hadn't been the first time that the Mossad operative had lost his head in a mission. Sometimes he would get so caught up into an undercover mission, as a mole, that he could forget who he was truly working for. During those times, it would take at least a couple of months after the operations were over before Brody was back to being himself again.

 

Unfortunately for her, Brody's tendency to commit to his role, rubbed some agencies the wrong way. Three years ago, when they were assigned to work with Interpol on an operation, Brody played fast and loose during the operation and as a result, two of their agents nearly lost their lives while three civilians were killed during a stand off with a Al Quaeda cell in London. She had to play peacemaker with the supervising agent in charge not to have Brody arrested, especially with the operative being as blasé about the incident when he was confronted with the agency afterwards.

 

Rachel wonders why she continues to protect Brody at all? He never listens to her warnings to be more careful. He gives her his condescending smile and tells her not to worry her pretty little head about him.When she tries to call him out on his behavior, he would find a way to rationally justify what he's done. The control officer has tried dozens of times to address the issue with her commanding officers or Director Weston. They would either brush it off or reassign him to a place where he could do desk work and stay out of trouble. Any mistakes that he made would just be covered up or smoothed over by the higher ups, just to placate their relationships with their allies.

 

When she would ask why they continued to put up with his behavior, their answers were always the same. He was the one of the few perfect moles that Mossad had left and the information that Brody provided for him, thanks to his connections with Hamas, proved to be vital to several ongoing and future operations. They couldn't afford to lose him as a contact yet.

 

Rachel sighs impatiently reaching for the star on her necklace and rubbing it, wondering what was taking Agent Fabray so long to come in and question her. She had been sitting here for the last twenty minutes and no one has come in to tell her anything. The two agents that Jesse had stationed outside the room, per her father's instructions, had not bothered to come in.

 

Rachel was confident that if she wanted to, she could get past the agents without breaking a sweat. She excelled in hand to hand combat when she first began at the CIA and later on Mossad. What she lacked in size she made up for in skill and persistence, as Officer Ezra once told her. She was also known to throw the occasional knife or two with near perfect accuracy. Whenever her schedule allowed, she and her friend Liam who was also a liaison, would teach classes in Krav Maga for the new agents. The control officer had no doubt that if she wanted to escape, it would be no problem.

 

The brunette sat back and tried to rid her thoughts of leaving the room, knowing that she wouldn't in the end. She was going to sit here and answer whatever question NCIS threw at her with integrity. Not for the benefit of her father or Brody though. She was doing this for Beth and the little girl alone and the only reason she was still here. Rachel wasn't going to risk finding out whether or not Hiram would make good on his threat just to protect her charge. As far as she was concerned, Brody was on his own this time.

 

Rachel places her forehead on the cold silver table, hoping that it wouldn't be too much longer before Agent Fabray arrived.

 

* * *

 

**2:05 pm**

**Outside Interrogation**

 

Santana crosses her arms over herself as the sounds of one of her heels tapping the floor, while she stands outside the room and observes the liaison anxiously. The new Director came down here and told her and the probie to keep an eye on her. They were told to arrest her if she stepped one foot outside of that room, they were to arrest her. She had to fight to keep the grin off her face, considering this an early Christmas present for her. Frankly, she was waiting for Berry to get up out of the chair before she put the cuffs on her.

 

She was almost tempted to go in there and say that there was an emergency with Beth to get her to leave the room as she watches the Mossad operative lay her head on the table. Unfortunately for her, she knew that the boss would rip her head off and then have her taken away in cuffs for disturbing one of her interrogations. If there was one thing Agent Fabray hated more than the other agencies interfering with her investigations, it's anyone screwing up or meddling in her interrogations.So she stood by and watched silently as the officer squirm in her chair while fighting back a smile.

 

Sam on the other hand, stared at his partner and ran his hand through his shaggy hair. He fought the urge to roll his eyes at his overly excited partner.

 

“Would you like sometime alone, Lopez?” Sam asks sarcastically.

 

He didn't know why Santana was being so hard on the woman. Rachel seemed okay enough to him, despite the fact that she was a potential accomplice in Dani's death. The Mossad officer had been nice enough to everyone here. He had no personal vendetta against the liaison because he didn't know her well enough to have anything against her.

 

Santana turns away from the mirror and glares at the probie.

 

“All good here, Evans.” she replies, rolling her eyes and then turning back to the mirror. “Don't you have to go back upstairs and finish your reports? And by your reports, I mean mine and Puckerman's.”

 

“Don't you think you're enjoying this a just little too much?” Sam asks, not letting her get off that easily.

 

 

“I would be enjoying this a lot more if kept your big fish lips shut, probie.” Santana muttered.

 

“Why do you hate Rachel so much Lopez? She's just doing her job.” Sam says glaring at her while his hand subconsciously moves towards his lips.

 

“You're right Evans, she was doing her _job._ I know it's been a while since I originally tried to join the CIA, but the last time I checked protecting a _murderer_ wasn't anywhere in the oath that you take at graduation from the academy. Unless the oath's changed the four years. Say maybe you and me can go to the next graduation to check and see!” Santana yells sarcastically before turning away from him and glaring back at Rachel.

 

“Look, all I'm trying to say is if you were in her position and Puck was the one who murdered one of their people, wouldn't you do what she's doing?” Sam asks hoping to get through to his friend.

 

“Hell no. I would let Puck go up the river in a heartbeat.” Santana says honestly. If it ever came down to her or Puckerman, it would always be Puckerman.

 

Sam sighs. “Okay, bad example. What about me?”

 

“I'd think about it for a moment, then you would go down probie.”

 

Sam looks back at her mildly shocked but not surprised. Seeing that he is not getting through to the junior agent, he decides to hit below the belt a little. He takes a deep breath and then continues.

 

“ What if Dani had killed Brody when he took her a few months ago. Would you have to think about protecting her from Mossad then?” Sam asks softly.

 

Santana's glare softens and she starts picking at the invisible lent on her shirt sleeve. She knew that the probie was right. If Dani had saved them all the trouble and killed Brody six months ago and Mossad was breathing down their neck, she would do anything and everything to protect her best friend.

 

At the same time, she didn't want to let Rachel off the hook just yet. There was something off about the officer and the way she protects Brody. Something told her that Berry wasn't just protecting the slime ball just to be little miss Mossad. She just hadn't figured it out yet.

 

Before she could answer the probie's question, the door of interrogation opens. Agent Puckerman walks in with a big bowel of popcorn in his hand. He steps in between Sam and Santana and holds out the bowel for the two other agents, who shake their heads at him. His cheeks were puffed out like a chipmunk as he reached into the bag and puts more of the yellow kernels in his mouth.

 

“Boss'll be here in a second.” Puck says with his mouth full. He swallows what was stuffed in his mouth.

 

“Is that really necessary, Puckerman?” Santana asks, pointing to the popcorn.

 

“Well yeah since it looks like we won't be watching that movie anymore. Wanted to get a quick snack in before the interrogation.” Puck says reaching into the bowel. He scoops out a handful of the yellow kernels.

 

Before the junior agent has a chance to stuff the snack into his mouth, a hand slaps the back of his head, causing him to drop them. He nearly drops the bowel but is able to catch it before it falls out of his hand. He turns to see his boss right behind him walking towards the green door by the mirror.

 

“Put the popcorn away, Puckerman. You're in here with me.” Quinn says, putting her hand on the door knob and opening the door slightly. Director St. James and Tina brush past him as well following closely behind the boss.

 

Agent Puckerman looks up and sees a twitch of a smile on the probie's face. He glares in his direction and shoves the bowel of popcorn hard into Sam's arms.

 

“Something to keep you occupied, _probie._ ” Puck says, turning away from the two of them and walking away.

 

 

* * *

 

**2:20 pm**

**Interrogation room**

 

 

The sound of the green door opening causes Rachel to raise her head from the table, waking her from her restless sleep. She briefly looks over her shoulder and sees a stone faced Agent Fabray approach her with a stack of folders in her hands. Cold hazel eyes glance at her briefly before looking away. She could feel a chill run down her spine and for the first time since she's entered the Naval Yard, the control officer was genuinely scared.

 

The blond senior agent slams four folders down onto the table in front of her face. She then pulls out the silver chair and turns the back of it facing forward as the blond slumps down in it. Quinn lays her arms on the back of the chair and lays her chin on top of her hands.

 

The senior agent spends the next few minutes observing her, almost as if she were trying to get a better read on her before she makes her move. She moves the chair a couple of times, getting as close into her personal space as possible. Rachel tried her best not to look at the senior agent too often, not wanting the other woman to think that she was going to give in to her that easily. She hadn't even noticed the three other NCIS agents floating behind Agent Fabray. The couple of times she allowed herself to look into the agent's piercing hazel eyes, however, she saw something there that she was sure the senior agent would adamantly deny if she called her out on it.

 

The dark circles that were under her eyes when she first met the blond the day before had become deeper and more pronounced. Rachel imagined the other woman's eyes to look more stunning than they are at the moment, when she's had the proper amount of sleep. On top of her tiredness, there seemed to be a hint of sadness, longing and possibly guilt.

 

The control officer has lost people on her team and under her command before, many more times than necessary, so she understood on some level how Agent Fabray must be feeling. From the brief interaction Rachel has had with her team, it seemed that the senior agent would do anything and everything possible for all of them. To not be able to save a member from your team must be devastating for the senior agent. She couldn't imagine what it was like to lose someone who was more than that.

 

While she sympathized with Agent Fabray, Rachel still had her job to do and right now, that job was to make the blond's job a bit more difficult than it has been up until now. And once this was over, convince Brody to get out of the country as quickly as possible.

 

“Normally I find persistence a very attractive and admirable trait in a person. But in your case Agent Fabray, it's become rather inconvenient.” Rachel says, breaking their mini standoff.

 

Agent Fabray looks at the brunette for a moment and shrugs. She reaches over the table and flips open the flaps to each of the files before the control officer. The first photo shows Ambassador Hellman slumped over his steering wheel with his green eyes wide open. Blood slowly dripped down the middle of his forehead with some of it getting on the bridge of his nose. The photograph next to it showed three empty shell casings outside of the car door.

 

The second and third photographs were of Officer Ezra and her husband lying in bed with identical bullet wounds in each of their foreheads and blood splattered all over their cherry wood head board. The senior agent notice the brunette flinch a little when she sees a picture of the woman and the photo of the German Shepard with the snapped neck. The picture of the

 

Quinn moved the photos of the Newborns over to the side and places the photo of Agent McKenzie in front of the control officer. Rachel couldn't help but notice that outside of the bullet wound and the blood surrounding her head, which was the same as all of the other victims, that Agent McKenzie had been stunning. She reminded her of one of the cheerleaders from high school that she once wanted to be like. Agent McKenzie must have broken a lot of hearts when she was alive.

 

The blond reaches into her pocket and throws the plastic bag with the shell casings onto the table.

 

“ Do you know why Brody left his brass behind?” Quinn asks icily.

 

Rachel takes the bag into her hands and examines the bag. She recognized the bullets and could point out the kind of gun they came from. Unfortunately for Agent Fabray, she knew they wouldn't match any Mossad issued weapons.

 

The control officer places the bag back on the table and crosses her arms.

 

“ You are a broken record, aren't you, Fabray?” Rachel asks curiously, raising an eyebrow at her interrogator.

 

Ignoring the officer's question, Quinn leans forward and pushes the chair closer to the table.

 

“ A sniper's brass is like signing your signature.” the senior agent continues. “That's why a sniper always polices his brass.”

 

Rachel nods and watches intently as Agent Fabray takes the bag off the table and holds it up in front of her.

 

“Lapua, .308 casing.Boat tail, moly coated full metal jacket bullet.” Quinn explains as she places the bag back down.

 

“That's what you shot as a Marine sniper.” the control officer states knowingly. She leans forward and turns her chair around to face the senior agent.

 

“At Mossad, we use Sierra 6.5 hollow points.” Rachel said, reaching down and patting down on the holster on her right hip.

 

The senior agent raises an eyebrow at her and stares at the brunette curiously.

 

“How do you know what I shot, Officer Berry?”

 

“She profiled you for Brody.” Jesse says sternly, causing Rachel and Quinn to turn and look at him. He did not move from his spot on the wall, but he did give the Mossad officer a steely gaze. The officer also noticed Puck studying Agent Fabray with one foot on the wall. And a raven haired woman with blue streaks in her hair, that she hasn't met yet, glaring angrily at her. With her black gloved hands on her waist. Rachel assumed that this was Tina, NCIS' forensic scientist.

 

“Not just the boss.” Puck says stepping away from the wall. He takes a couple of steps forward towards Rachel. “That's how you knew where I was born and where I went to school.”

 

“Brody's missions involved NCIS. As his controller, of course I did dossiers on everyone he might interact with.” Rachel explains nonchalantly. “It's standard operating procedure at Komemiute.”

 

“Is that so? Would you happen to know where those dossiers are now, Officer Berry?” Quinn snaps.

 

The senior agent looks up towards her colleagues and gives them a knowing look. “Director. Tina. Puckerman. Give me a minute with alone with Officer Berry, please.”

 

They all nod in her direction and make their way out of the room. Jesse mouths good luck to and nods in reply. She waits for the door to close completely before she stands up from her chair and moves it to the opposite side of the table.

 

She sits down, facing away from the mirror, not wanting the team to hear the rest of this conversation. There were things her team had yet to know about their leader and Quinn preferred that they not hear it in the middle of an interrogation. She wanted to tell them in her own time and didn't need Officer Berry spilling her secrets.

 

“I'm assuming you know about what happened to my sister and mother in Mexico?” Quinn whispers lowly, hoping that the mic doesn't pick up their conversation.

 

“ Yes and I'm really sorry about that Agent Fabray. No one should lose their family like that.” Rachel says apologetically.

 

Not wanting to bring up her old ghosts, Quinn ignores the officer's apology and moves on.

 

“You're also aware that Agent McKenzie and I were married?”

 

Rachel nods. “And once again, you have my condolences. I can't imagine the grief you must be feeling right now.” she says softly. The brunette resists the urge to reach out and place a hand on the senior agent's shoulder in comfort and instead grips her hand over her other one.

 

Quinn sees the control officers change in behavior and her defenses lower a bit. She decides to use that as her way in.

 

“So, then we know why Brody was originally targeting women, don't we?”

 

Rachel scoffs. “ If he wanted to you know he is the sniper, why didn't he use your rifle, an M-40?”

 

“The Bravo 51 he fired is called a 'Kate'. Danielle's middle name happened to be Katherine.” the senior agent tells her calmly. She taps on each of the photos on the table.

 

“You and I both know it was no coincidence that all four of the victims were killed in the same way, with the same weapon and the brass left behind all came from the same type of gun.”

 

The Mossad operative sat back and took in the information. Agent Fabray did have a point. So far, all four of the victims could be connected to Brody or his father. It's obvious that whoever is doing this is trying send a message to the NCIS agent. Unfortunately, Brody wasn't a big fan of the blond agent or any of his father's colleagues. But that doesn't mean he would kill anyone to do it, would he?

 

“I still don't believe Brody is the sniper. But what you have said should be investigated immediately.” Rachel says diplomatically.

 

The blond senior agent glares at her for a moment, before standing up from the chair and gathering all of her files, placing Dani's file at the top.It's obvious that the Mossad officer is a lot more strategic than she had anticipated her being. Quinn had a feeling that Berry wasn't going to cooperate unless she was absolutely compelled to and guilting the officer obviously wasn't working.

 

Quinn flips open Dani's file until she gets to the very last image. She didn't want to do this, but she knew it may be the only way she could get to Berry. The senior agent closes her eyes for a moment and sighs. _Dani, I hope you'll forgive me for doing this._

 

“Well, when the media gets wind of this, it's going to create a furor.” Quinn tells her coldly.

 

The control officer's brown eyes harden as she stands up abruptly and away from the table.

 

“Are you threatening to go to the media?” she growls.

 

The blond agent throws up her hands and shrugs. “No, not me. This can stay between Mossad and NCIS. It's just that four murders with the same MO is bound to create a media firestorm for your agency.”

 

Quinn walks back over to the table, with the ultrasound in hand and carefully places it down on the table.

 

“Can't imagine how crazy the coverage will get when it gets out that his last victim was seven weeks pregnant.” Quinn finishes, closing up Dani's file.

 

Rachel picks up the ultrasound and stares at it with wide eyes.

 

“She-she was pregnant? Agent McKenzie?” Rachel stutters shakily, gawking at Agent Fabray.

 

“Yeah. I only found about it a couple of days ago, after Dr.Corcoran completed her preliminary autopsy.” Quinn says quietly. “We had been trying for the last year and a half. It took too late, I guess.”

 

Rachel didn't ask anymore questions. She stared back down at the ultrasound, clutching it in her hands. The control officer felt some bile rise in her throat at the thought that Brody was capable of doing something like this. She wanted to believe that the operative wouldn't, no couldn't, come and visit her and their daughter hours after taking away someone else's wife and child. The brunette had to believe that she or Mossad haven't been covering up for a heartless killer for the last year and a half.

 

The liaison knew that it was a sign of weakness to let any emotion other than indifference show like this, but she couldn't help it. Being a mother herself, it was always hard to get cases or see other women who were mothers or about to be mothers killed like this. It always made her think of Beth and how she could easily end up like one of these women if something goes wrong on the job. How a couple of years ago, she could have easily ended up like Agent McKenzie and the thought terrified her to her core.

 

Rachel takes a deep breath and puts the ultrasound back down on the table and looks down at the floor.

 

Agent Fabray walks over and slips the picture in her pocket. The blond walks away from the table and heads for the door, giving Berry one last chance to cooperate. If this didn't work then their case would be shot to hell and Brody would continue to do this until he got who he wanted.

 

“This stays between NCIS and Mossad in exchange for what? Setting Brody up for you to kill?” Rachel asks the senior agent softly. Her gaze landing to the senior agent at the door. She watches as Agent Fabray turns around and stares back at her.

 

“No. Setting me up _for_ Brody.” Quinn says opening the door. “And if I'm wrong about this, he won't show up.”

 

Agent Fabray knew that was a lie. He would show up, Brody always does.She had seen the troubled look on Mossad officer's face when she told her about Dani's pregnancy and for a moment she felt guilty about it. Quinn wanted to offer some comfort towards the brunette, even if it was false hope. By the way Berry sucked in her bottom lip, the senior agent could sense that the liaison felt the same way too.

 

“And if you're right?” Rachel asks uncertainly.

 

“Then I'm counting on you to back me up.” Quinn says pointedly before walking away, leaving Officer Berry to look on at her stunned.

 

* * *

 

**14:55 pm (02:55 pm)**

**Fabray residence**

 

Quinn takes the picture out of the solution, with her fingers on the corners of the paper. All of the lights were off in the basement,with the exception of the light coming from the stair way, while she developed the photos that were taken on her last roll of film. She takes two of the laundry clips that were clipped onto the wire and carefully hangs the picture up there to dry. She nods her head appreciatively at the photograph, thinking about how nice it was going to turn out once it was done.

 

After her interrogation with Officer Berry, she sent her team home to their dismay. As soon as she walked out of the interrogation room, the three agents and forensic scientist fired off question after question about her late wife's pregnancy, while Santana stood in the background yelling threats to the Mossad officer from the window. She was able to get everyone under control, no thanks to Jesse who just stood by and watched his friend flounder, and told everyone to go home. She said that if she caught anyone at the office or near Officer Berry when she walks out of this room, that what Brody was putting them through would be nothing compared to what she would do to them. When Officer Berry came out of her stupor five minutes later, the room went quiet. The surrounding agents parted out of her way and stared at her as she hurried out of the room without a word to anyone else.

 

The blond rushed out of the building and headed on home afterwards. As soon as she got there, Quinn slipped out of her uncomfortable work clothes and into her old, grey and ratty Yale sweater and black yoga pants. When she was done, the tired agent thought about getting some sleep, but her mind was still too wired from the case to sleep. So Quinn put Jethro in her and Dani's old room and headed down to the basement to work on the last couple of photos in her roll.

 

The agent walks over to the mixed floral arrangement that she got from the Farmer's Market nearby, that was filled with purple lilies, lilac and her favorite, blue irises. She had planned on going up to the rooftop where Dani was killed like she had every day since it's happened and leaves some flowers there. Then she would head to O'Malley's and knock back a couple of shots of their oldest whiskey, maybe with a couple of beers, and try not to think about the fact that she was going to be burying someone she didn't think she could imagine her life without.

 

The newly bed head blond leans and sniffs the arrangement, sighing longingly as she looks at them. A sad smile appears on lips as she can't help but think about how Dani would have loved these if she were here.

 

Every few weeks or so, the blond would stop by the Farmer's Market on her way home. She would stop by Ralph's booth and ask him for the best arrangement that he had for that day, while making small talk. If they had worked a harder case for that week, like the time Dani was forced to shoot and kill a suspect, she would try to get another arrangement for her. When he was done sprucing up the arrangement for his best customer, she would leave the flowers on Dani's night stand table for when she got home and then Quinn would go to her basement. Dani would then come home and discover the arrangement, after ignoring them to get out of her work clothes, she would come downstairs in her USC hoodie and wrap her arms around a obliviously hardworking Quinn. The raven haired woman would then reach over Quinn's work bench, drink out of her mug and then make some crack about how Quinn was killing her liver. With all the dark coffee and Bourbon she drinks on a daily basis.

 

Quinn steps away from the flowers and moves over to her locked drawer. She doesn't know what possesses her to do it, since the only thing in there was her old rifle from her time in the Marines, but she takes out the keys to the drawer and unlocks it anyway. When she opens it up, the agent is almost surprised that the rifle was not inside.

 

“You looking for this, Lucy?” A voice calls smugly out to her from the darkness.

 

Quinn turns around and sees Brody, sitting rather comfortably on her work bench. In his hands was her black M-40 with the barrel draped across the other side of his shoulder. Even in the darkness, she could see his bright, menacing smile for her.

 

Quinn sighs and closes her eyes.

 

He stands up from the bench and walks the short distance over to her, taking the safety off the rifle along the way. The rogue operative had time to change out of his black ensemble and was now wearing a blue v neck shirt. When he is about two feet in front of her, he stops.

 

“I want you to know, I wish I hadn't had to shoot Danielle.” Brody says almost apologetically.

 

“Then why did you?” Quinn asks.

 

Brody shrugs his shoulders and the senior agent has to do everything that she can not to tackle the arrogant bastard.

 

“To cause you pain.” the rogue operative says simply.

 

“ I piss you off that much, Weston?” Quinn asks.

 

He shakes his head and almost laughs at the thought that the senior agent could think this had anything to do with her. Brody liked Quinn just as much as he did most people, she just had the misfortune of being the rook in his endgame.

 

“Not you. My father. You just have the misfortune of reminding me of the bastard.” Brody said bitterly.

 

“What about Ambassador Hellman? Or Officers Ezra and Newborn? Did they remind you of Xavier as well.”

 

“The only misfortune that they were plagued with, was the fact that they served as my father's willing lackeys.” Brody says dismissively. “They choose to die for a monster.”

 

Quinn looks into the rogue operative's steely gaze knowingly and sees something there. The blond wanted to slap herself for not realizing this sooner. Out of the three encounters that she's had with the man, this was the first time she's ever seen the operative give off a vibe that didn't scream smug arrogance. In fact the way he was looking and acting now, reminds her of how she feels when the topic of her own father comes up. This had nothing to do with her or her team, it had everything to do with his estranged father.

 

“He didn't marry your mother, did he?” Quinn asks as her gaze drops to the rogue operative's hands. Apparently she must have hit a nerve, seeing as he currently held her rifle in a vice grip. A second later, he notices that she is looking down at his hands and he relaxes his grip on the weapon again.

 

“That's what makes me the bastard Agent Fabray, not him.” Brody says quietly. He remembers all the times his father had called him that when he didn't do what he wanted him to do or when he screwed up.

 

The older Weston made it a point to remind Brody every chance he got, about how much he never wanted the boy and how lucky he was for his mother's unending capacity for mercy. How he literally begged and threatened his mother for an abortion, telling her how their baby would ruin his precious career. He didn't care about how hard this would hit his mother's own career aspirations.

 

“From the moment of my birth, he groomed me to be one thing: his mole in Hamas. Sent me to Edinburgh to become a doctor, so I could work in the Gaza camps alongside my mother.”

 

The rogue operative pauses closing his eyes.

 

Eventually, Xavier came around when he was five, when the future director discovered his son's higher than average aptitude and how it would be of great use to Mossad when he came of age. The older man saw to it that Brody and his mother were well taking care of and that he got into the best schools money could buy. When he wasn't in school, the Deputy director taught him the ins and outs of Mossad and what he needed to know to infiltrate Hamas when he was older. After he graduated from Edinburgh, Brody signed up for Mossad soon after.

 

He opens his eyes and gazes off into the distance, blue eyes briefly filling with sorrow.

 

“When he had her killed, I had no trouble joining the Iz-Adin Al-Kassam.” he finishes.

 

After his mother's death four years ago, he had no problems turning his back on Mossad and being a part of Hamas full time. He would do enough for his former agency to make them believe that he was still loyal to them, until it was time to make his move. If he was going to abandon Mossad, he was going to do it on his terms and with a bang while take a few causalities with him. Brody certainly wasn't going to wait for them to get smart and order a bullet be put in him.

 

Quinn raises an eyebrow at him.

 

“You really don't believe your father had your mother killed.” the blond asks skeptically.

 

“It was a retaliatory Israeli strike on a day I was in Tel Aviv, visiting him with Rachel.” Brody said angrily losing his cool for a second. “ After a couple of decades of planning, the bastard finally had his mole in Hamas. I'm the reason why Eli gave Xavier his cushy Deputy Director's position.”

 

The rogue operative takes a couple of steps forward shaking his head. “He never knew how much I hated him.”A menacing grin forms on his lips.

 

“I wish he could see his face when he realizes he created not a mole but a monster. Eager to strike at the heart of Mossad and Israel.” he said, almost gleefully.

 

For a moment, the senior agent felt some sympathy for the rogue operative's unfortunate childhood. She hated her father almost as much as he did. But at least Russell had been tried to be a decent father when she was younger. Brody never stood a chance with a father like Director Weston, who only saw him as a means to an end.

 

“ Yeah, I almost feel sorry for you.” Quinn says understandingly, closing the empty drawer.

 

She doesn't think she would have turned out any differently than Brody if her mother hadn't done everything possible to protect her from Russell's influence.

 

Brody nods. “And I for you.”

 

The blond agent turns away from her captor and walks over to the wooden steps. Brody, a little bit taken back, follows her but stays away from the entrance. She stands on the second to last step and stretches her arms, briefly wondering if Jethro was okay upstairs.

 

The Mossad agent lifts up the sniper rifle and examines it. He looks through the scope and aims the barrel in the sitting agent's direction

 

“When Rachel told me you were placing flowers on the roof where Danielle died, I couldn't believe it. Such a romantic touch. Never took you as a romantic, Agent Fabray.” Brody states changing the subject.

 

Quinn smiles slightly at him, knowing that he only wanted to get a reaction out of her. She wasn't giving him the validation that he desperately wanted, so he decides to pull out the big guns.

 

“ It was almost too good of an opportunity to pass up. Almost.” he finishes cryptically.

 

“Why did you?” Quinn asks, playing along.

 

He looks up from the scope and lowers the sniper rifle.Blue eyes lock with hazel as he explains his infallible plan to the relaxed agent.

 

“ I need you to commit suicide with your own rifle. You never did give me enough credit in our game. I knew it was a trap before my dear, sweet Rachel told me you asked her to cover for you. You'd never trust Rachel.”

 

“Guess I was right not to. She has been working with you all along has she?” Quinn asks.

 

“Not at all, Fabray. Rachel was just a pleasant, yet convenient distraction for my father. She is more or less the child he's always wanted more than I could ever be. When she got pregnant a couple of years ago, I saw that as the perfect opportunity to execute my plan, seeing as how he was more concerned about Rachel and Beth's welfares than keeping an eye on my activities.” Brody explains causality. “Just like Agent McKenzie's pregnancy was my opportunity to get to you.”

 

Quinn eyes flash in anger for a moment, before they become neutral again. _He's trying to bait me again. I can't lose it now, Fabray._

 

“And you need to kill me to taste the sweetness of revenge.” Brody concludes.

 

The blond agent puts her hand up towards him and shrugs as he raises the rifle taking his aim at her.

She smiles watching the rogue operative put his hand on the trigger and shakes her head.

 

“I've killed enough men and women in my life, Brody.” Quinn says. She sits down on the steps defiantly. “It's going to be just as sweet watching you die.”

 

The Mossad operative laughs at the senior agent. He looks down in the scope and cocks the gun, preparing to fire. “Sorry to spoil your-”

 

Quinn watches the lone gunshot, that came out of nowhere, pierce through the forehead of the former Mossad agent and his eyes widen as his body falls backwards on the floor. A little blood had splattered in the middle of her sweater, like it had a few days before. She stands up from the her spot on the stairs and moves towards the fallen operative's body.

 

Quinn knees down and examines Brody's body closely. She places a couple of fingers on his neck, feeling for a pulse. The blond was confidant that the disturbed man was dead,knowing that it would have been next to impossible to survive a kill shot like that. She looks into the dead dull eyes of the former Mossad operative, but she doesn't see Brody anymore.

 

_Instead the senior agent is staring down at the dead green eyes of Dani. She's moving a stray raven hair out of her face and behind her ear. The pool of blood surrounds her head, like a halo. With her mouth opened slightly. Quinn looks away from the body and frantically glances around her looking for the gunman. Her eyes stop at the office building across the way and for a moment, she thinks she sees someone smirking at her. She think she sees Brody, smirking at her. She ignores her gut and turns away from the building, picking up her rifle and firing aimlessly in each direction. When the clip was empty, she drops the rifle onto the ground and looks over to see a horrified Agent Puckerman covered in blood, in Dani's blood._

 

The sounds of foot steps breaks her out of her trance and she sees Brody's body once again. She moves her hand away from the rogue agent and abruptly stands up. She turns around and finds the overwhelmed control officer staring brokenly down at the body. Brown eyes fill with unshed tears as she shakily holds the gun up, still pointing it at the body.

 

When Rachel moves to stand next to her, the senior agent puts her hand on the barrel of the gun and lowers it gently until the liaison's grip on the weapon loosens allowing the blond to take it out of her hands. Quinn reaches into her sweater pocket and takes out the rag she had used earlier, wiping the brunette's finger prints off the gun and then places it back in the brunette's holster. She takes that hand that Rachel still thinks is holding the gun, and intertwines it with her own, squeezing it in comfort.

 

What she had asked Rachel to do for her had been rough. Quinn suspected that deep down, the brunette was holding on to some slim silver of hope that Brody hadn't been guilty of any of this. That she wouldn't have to explain to her kid who or what her father truly was and why she had to kill him.

 

Rachel turns away from the body and looks over at the blond and then down at their hands, surprised by the contact. She had covered up for man who murdered her wife and unborn baby, yet the senior agent is providing her with comfort. The brunette thought the blond's kindness was more than what she deserved.

 

She rips her hand out of the senior agent's and moves closer to Brody's body. The senior agent doesn't follow her and gives the brunette the space that she needed.

 

“Director Eli David's retirement is coming up soon. ” Quinn states, already knowing the answer.

 

Rachel nods meekly. “Yes. He plans on announcing at the end of the month. He's delegating most of his duties to Deputy Director Weston. My father is taking over Director Weston's position. Brody seemed as upset as my father was about Xavier's promotion.”

 

Quinn nods walking up to the grieving liaison. She brushes her hand against the Rachel's left hand one last time. When she doesn't get a response, the senior agent turns around and walks up the basement stairs.

 

When she reaches the second step from the top, the blond turns around and her gaze lingers on Rachel kneeled down by Brody's body. The liaison had closed his eyes and she was whispering a Kaddish over him. Her own eyes were closed but the blond could still see the few tears that streamed down her face. Quinn wanted so badly to go down there and comfort the ailing brunette, but she didn't think she deserved to.

 

The last thing Quinn sees before she turns back around and heading back upstairs, she sees Rachel lifting his head out of the puddle of blood and cradling it into her lap. She doesn't see the monster that her team has been chasing relentlessly, he seemed more human somehow.

 

The senior agent was happy and relieved to see Brody gone. Her team could sleep soundly with the assurance that for tonight, there would be no imminent threat placed on their lives. Four families would have closure they needed now that the person responsible was taking care of. That should have been good enough for her, but somehow it wasn't.

 

Quinn thought about all the people the rogue operative left behind to clean up the havoc he reeked. In spite of all that he's done, Brody still had at least one person who missed him and bothered to give a crap about him, Rachel. Beth, the only innocent party in this mess, no longer had a father anymore not that she truly had him in the first place. Xavier would have to live with the fact that his old friends were killed by the monster he had a hand in creating. There was no way the deputy director would stay after this incident, let alone take David's position. There were no winners in this case and no happy endings to be found. Especially not for the senior agent.

 

As she pulled out her phone to call Shelby and her team at the morgue, the senior agent wondered whether or not the outcome of this investigation had been worth it in the end? If the ends had truly justified the means? Brody's death would not bring Dani or their unborn baby back. Nor would it fill the emptiness and longing that she feels in her heart for what could have been...

 

 

 

 


	10. Goodbyes

 

_ You saw my pain, washed out in the rain. _

_Broken glass, saw the blood run from my veins_

_But you saw no fault, no cracks in my heart_

_And you knelt beside my hope torn apart_

 

* * *

 

 

**Sunday, 1000**

**The Westin Virginia Beach, Room 321**

 

 

“ _Breaking news coming out of Tel Aviv today, Deputy Director of Mossad Xavier Weston has just announced his resignation from his position as Director, effective immediately.”_

 

The sound of the morning newscaster's voice caused the blond to stop applying the mascara to her eyes and turn attention towards the television set.She sets the stick down onto the counter and walks over to one of the queen sized beds. Settling onto the bed closest to the mirror, Quinn brushes the invisible dust bunnies on her green dress and crosses her ankles together as she sits on the edge of the bed. Her interest in the report piques as she sees a haggard looking Xavier Weston step up to the press podium.

 

Quinn couldn't help but be relieved that there was someone in this mess who was in worse shape than she was at the moment.

 

From all of the pictures she had seen of the former director, looking as youthful and arrogant as Brody's younger brother instead of his father,the man standing in front of the flurry of the vicious press now, looked nothing like him. In fact, it looked as if the older Weston had aged ten years in the two days since his son's death.

 

Blue eyes appeared sunken and she could swear there were dark circles underneath his eyes. The top of his black dress shirt had been left undone and grey stubble began to form on his face. The normally confident boarding on arrogant man looked as if every ounce of his former self had been sucked out of him and all that remained was a resigned and somber shell of who he once was. She watches his eyes squint trying to adjust his eyes to the blinding lights of the cameras. For a moment, the senior agent thought the seemingly infallible and larger than life deputy director looked delicate. It nearly made Quinn feel bad for not feeling any sympathy for the man.

 

“ _During a brief press conference this morning, the thirty year veteran of the agency, who has served as Deputy Director for fifteen of those years, announced his retirement. No specific reason was given for his sudden departure from the agency. And according to insiders, Weston was a rumored favorite to take over Executive Director Eli David's position, pending his retirement early next year-”_

 

As he prepared to speak to the press, Quinn saw a flicker of a haunted look beneath the steely cobalt blue eyes of the former director. She had a feeling that one of his contacts had told him every detail of the events leading up to his son's death. Why NCIS, Quinn in particular, were on a manhunt for him and the four other deaths that they were able to hold his son responsible for. They had probably fed him the “official” NCIS story of Brody's last moments, the same version that the senior agent had told the new director. Of how she shot the rogue operative in self defense after he broke into her basement in a brief confrontation, making sure to omit Rachel's involvement in her charge's death.

 

A picture of a smiling Hiram Berry suddenly appears onto the screen as the reporter continues on.

 

“ _Now that the former Deputy Director has decided to step down, Assistant Director Hiram Berry is slated to take his place.”_

 

Pale hands clench the white sheets underneath as she glares at the man on the screen. Director Berry's compliance with NCIS made more sense to her now. It was never about helping their agency apprehending a man who took one of their own. This was about helping Hiram Berry's political future by forcing his competition to resign his position. It almost made her sick that she and her team were playing into what Director Berry wanted all along.

 

Quinn hears a light thumping on the door to her room. She turns her head towards the door but doesn't get up to answer it, assuming that it was the maids looking to clean up. They were due to check out by noon today and be on the road back to DC after the reception. The team had arrived at the Westin late Friday night after Quinn went came back to the bullpen and delivered the news of Brody's death. When the team bombarded her with questions about how and what happened, she simply brushed past them and made her way to the new director's office. Deciding that the team needed a bit of a reprieve after Brody, she was able to convince Jesse to let them borrow the motorcade a day early than scheduled and the Westin to move their reservations up to that Friday night. She had bought the entire team dinner, which was surprisingly eaten in silence, before retiring to her room for the night. 

 

The next morning, she had met Dani's older sister Brooke at a restaurant nearby to grab breakfast before they would head over to the funeral home to talk about everything that was going to happen tomorrow. They talked briefly about what was going on before both of their lives were where the red head had placed the diamond eternity band back in her outstretched hand carefully. The older woman had quietly told her that Dani would have wanted her to have it. It was the last thing that she said before Quinn found her self hanging on to the anguished Brooke tightly as she broke down and sobbed. After a while, the blond watched quietly as the older woman said her final goodbyes to her younger sister, before walking away from the viewing room.

 

She then told the senior agent that she would not be there for the services, due to an emergency at her home in San Francisco, but she gave Quinn her well wishes. She patted the solemn blond on the shoulder and whispered in her ear how happy she is to have Quinn as a sister in law and how no matter what, she would always be a part of their family. Brooke kissed her cheek and made her way out of the funeral home, leaving her alone with Dani.

 

Quinn wanted to stay and make her own personal goodbyes to her beloved wife. She wanted to spend the next twelve hours apologizing to Dani for all of the stupid things she had done to the raven haired woman while she was alive. And for not knowing that her wife was going through the beginning of her pregnancy all alone . She wanted to take back all of the times where a case took precedence over their relationship, even though Dani had been very understanding of it all. Quinn wanted to tell Dani the real reason why she threw herself into work as much as she had the last six months.She wanted to tell her how much she had truly loved her even if she never showed it as often as she should have. Most of all, knowing what she knew now, Quinn wanted to go back to that day on the roof and take the bullet for Dani and their unborn child. Even if she died, Quinn was sure that Dani wouldn't have let their child forget their other mother and at least then, they would be safe. The child that they had spent the last year and a half planning for would have had a chance at a good life.

 

But the senior agent couldn't bring herself to see her wife. She wanted her lasting memory of the raven haired beauty to be the look that she had given her on the roof. The adoration, love and satisfaction that shined through beautiful pools of green that had momentarily broken her mask of professionalism. It was the last happy memory she had left of them and selfishly, Quinn didn't want that memory to be tainted by a lifeless corpse. She takes one last look at the viewing room before turning around and briskly walking out of the funeral home. The stoic agent immediately went back to her hotel room, turned out the lights and closed up the window's blinds choosing to spend the rest of the afternoon and night in darkness. Sleep did not come at all for the agent last night, even though she desperately needed it. Hazel eyes stared lifeless up at the ceiling as thoughts of Dani occupy the screen of her restless weary mind.

 

After a while, the thumping stopped and Quinn turns her attention back to the tv screen. Her fingers clutch the eternity band and pushes it around its ridges as she watches a hunched over Xavier covering his face and trying to make his way over to the black limo as the reporters shouted question after question at the overwhelmed man.

 

“ _Director Weston, is it true that you're quitting because of the incident in DC, where an NCIS agent was killed?”_

 

“ _What is your next move Deputy Director Weston?”_

 

“ _What was your son's assignment in Washington DC, Director?”_

 

“ _Will we ever learn the truth about your son's untimely death Director!”_

 

She watches Xavier wince at the last couple of questions before someone in his security detail pull him into the limousine hastily and slam the door shut. The black car takes off into the night of Tel Aviv and away from the madness left behind. This was only going to get worse for Xavier as time goes by as more details are released about Brody and the circumstances surrounding his death. Whatever good that Mr. Weston had done during his time as Deputy director and as an agent for Mossad, would now be circumvented because of the actions of his son. Brody had gotten at least part of what he wanted, tarnishing his father's legacy.

 

If she weren't so angry at Xavier and everyone else involved in this situation, Quinn would feel sorry for the man. He can't go back to the job that has been his entire life for god knows how long. While being left behind to deal with the fact that his son was a monster and he facilitated

 

Quinn doesn't hear the sound of the door opening and closing just as gently. Nor does she see Jesse carefully approach her in his new three piece black suit with a crisp midnight blue shirt underneath it. Nor does she see the two cups of black coffee in the carrying case in his hands. Because all she can think about is the image of the smiling man whose voice has been in her head the last few days.

  
Jesse turns around and gently closes the door behind him. He wanted to pay a visit to his friend before the funeral to see how she was holding up. The last couple of days had been a test of will for the director, since he desperately wanted to know how the subdued agent was doing. He hadn't talked to her since she called him briefly to tell him that Brody was dead.

 

 

While they were in the first black SUV, along with Shelby and Tina, Quinn had not said a word to him or anyone else during the ride over to Virginia beach, preferring to gaze out of the window instead. He had only made one attempt after dinner to get her alone to talk, only to be rebuffed with a simple 'I'm fine'.

 

He decided to let it go after that, knowing that when the time was right that Quinn would come to him. As concerned as he was for his friend's well being, Jesse also knew that when the senior agent needed to finally process everything that was happening alone and that it was best to just leave her be. So he spent his Saturday, getting various members of Quinn's team alone to try and get to know them better. He manage to get each of them alone, under the pretense of talking about the mandatory grief counseling that they would be subjected to. Eventually the conversation would drift away from work and focus more on what they did on their off time. Throughout the day, he learned new things about the new team that he was commandeering. Some of the information that they feed him, he would have preferred not to know, like Puck bragging about his latest one night stand or the fact that Tina sleeps in a coffin. At the end of the night, with the exception of Quinn, he found himself drinking at the hotel bar with Shelby, Puck Santana, Sam and Tina, toasting to Danielle's memory.

 

He quietly watched as the NCIS agents went around the table laughing and fondly reminiscing about Dani. They talked about the various pranks they had pulled on the former agent, the most memorable one being Puck finding an old picture of Dani in college participating in a wet t-shirt contest. He sent the photo in an mass email throughout the bullpen with the title 'Employee of the month' scrawled at the top. Dani, in retaliation, photoshopped a picture of the junior agent as a Chippendale’s dancer, asking her out and sent it to the scary secretary, Eleanor, downstairs who threatened to sue him for sexual harassment.The next day Puck had Sam hack into everyone in the bullpen's email to get rid of the picture before it became more viral than it already was.

 

Watching all of them speak of the fallen agent in the manner that they were, had made him realize just how close everyone in this unit was to one another. He realized why they may have been unprofessional at times during this investigation. This unit wasn't just comprised of coworkers who tolerated each other for the sake of the job, they considered each other family. Probably a highly dysfunctional family, but a family none of the less. In all his years at NCIS, he had never came in contact with a team that is as close as these people seemed to be with each other. Jesse vowed to vouch for each and everyone of them, should Mossad or his bosses give them all a hard time for the way this case was handled. It also made him a little sad that the unit's ring leader, the heart of the team, was not with the group jovially sharing her memories of Dani. That she was off somewhere trying to pick up the pieces to her life alone.

 

Jesse ended his night earlier than he usually would, leaving the rest of the team to their own devices. He made his way back to his room to sleep, preparing himself to be there for his friend tomorrow. whether she wanted him there or not, Jesse was going to be there for her from the beginning of the service and he wouldn't stop being there until most of Quinn's emotional wounds showed signs of healing. He was not going to let her be alone in her feelings or grief anymore. Even if it came at the price of his beauty sleep, it didn't matter to the new director.

 

The next day, the director found himself getting up bright and early for once. Normally, it would have taken Jesse about two hours or more, depending on the occasion, to get ready for the day.While he was getting ready, Jesse came up with the idea to stop by Quinn's room with a peace offering of coffee. That way he could give her one of his not so famous pep talks, that Quinn will insist that she doesn't need, and give her the opportunity to talk if she needed to before the funeral services started that afternoon. It took him an hour to get showered and fully dressed before leaving his room and taking the elevator to the lobby. He made his way to the Starbucks across the street and picked up the coffee. The director had opted out of getting himself anything other than a cinnamon scone and instead got his friend her usual two cups of her black coffee.

 

 

When he arrives at the door with the golden numbers 321, Jesse knocks lightly on the door.He stands there waiting patiently for five minutes before realizing that the senior agent wasn't coming to the door. Sitting the coffees down, Jesse reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out all of the plastic key cards for each of the team's rooms before he finally found the one for her room. He inserts the card into the golden handle on the door and watches as the light turns green. Jesse bends down and picks up the carrier, making sure to close the door as gently as possible.

 

Jesse tip toes down the dimly lit hallway leading to the bathroom as quickly and quietly as possible, being careful not to scare the senior agent. The director stops by one of the bathroom mirrors and uses his free hand to fix a stray hair. Once he is satisfied with the appearance of his hair, he smiles brightly into the mirror and heads over to the twin queen beds. When he reaches the bed farthest left, the one that the blond happens to be occupying, he sees Quinn staring blankly at the television in front of her, still oblivious to his presence. He looks over at the tv trying to see what has his friend so enamored and frowns at what he sees.

 

_Damn you Xavier, you just couldn't wait until tomorrow, couldn't you? Who in the world announces their retirement on one of the slowest news days of the week?You and your family just couldn't leave Quinn be for one day could you?_ Jesse seethes as his grip on the carrier becomes tighter.

 

_Coincidently, this announcement comes the day after the agency announced the death of Officer Brody Weston, Director Weston's oldest son yesterday afternoon. Details of his death have not been released or made available at this time..._

 

A snap shot of a smiling Brody, the picture that was on his real passport, appears on the screen and Jesse decides to take action. He storms over to the bed that Quinn was on and grabs the abandoned remote next to her thigh and turns the tv off. He steps in front of it, in Quinn's line of sight and crosses his arms, giving her a stern glare.

 

Quinn blinks a couple of times, wondering when and how Jesse got in here, before she glances up at her intrusive best friend.

 

“Quinn Fabray.” Jesse scolds sternly.

 

The senior agent takes her hands and brushes out the knee high, dark green dress. She doesn't look up at the director's piercing gaze knowing that he will push her into doing something that she wasn't quite ready to do yet. Having this conversation with Jesse about how she was feeling would mean accepting everything that has come to past and she wasn't ready to do that yet. So she's decided to handle the situation like she always does when it comes to hiding how she was really feeling, by being a smart ass. _Maybe he'll take the hint and stay out of my business._

 

“Who pissed in your coffee this morning St James, because I was- .” Quinn spats snidely, crossing her arms over herself.

 

“I won't let you do this to yourself. Not today.” the director orders not backing down.

 

“I have no idea what you're talking about, _Director_. I was just watching the morning news, end of story.” Quinn denies coolly, trying to keep her composure in front of the director. She stands up, brushing past the director as the high heeled agent stomps toward the bathroom.

 

She stands in front of the bathroom mirror and picks up the forgotten mascara clutching it hard in her hands. She wasn't going to have this conversation with him now, if not ever if she could avoid it. The bastard was dead and as far as the senior agent was concerned, there was nothing left to say.

 

The curly haired man shakes his head turning away from the bed and makes his way over to the bathroom. He leans back against the wall with his arms crossed, getting as comfortable as he can. If the senior agent wanted to play dumb, he was going to call her bluff.

 

The director quietly watches the senior agent for a few moments as she yanks the stick of her mascara in and out of the liquid hard. For a moment, he thought that the blond was going to snap the stick in two, as if she were substituting it for what she wanted to do to him at the moment.

 

“For someone whose usually a superb yet frighteningly convincing liar, you're really sucking at it now.”Jesse says casually. “ You know exactly what I'm talking about Fabray and it stops right now. ”

 

The blond agent slams the mascara down on the surface of the sink and grips its edge. She was gripping it so tightly that the agent could see her knuckles turn white. She gazes at Jesse menacingly, hoping that he would back off a little. She watches as he looks up at her for a moment, raising an eyebrow at her before looking down at his hand disinterestedly. Sometimes she wishes that Jesse didn't know her as well as he knows her. Why couldn't he be more like Terri and just take the hint? She probably would have bought her lie, even if she wasn't entirely convinced that Quinn was alright, and left her be afterwards. Unfortunately for her at the moment, Jesse was nothing like their old director and he wasn't going to stop until she told him the truth.

 

Quinn stares down at the empty sink, dropping her shoulders not having the strength to look at her friend.

 

“What do you want from me, Jesse?” the agent asks resignedly.

 

He pushes himself off of the wall and takes a couple of tentative steps toward the vulnerable agent. When he is close enough, Jesse hovers a hesitant hand over her bare right shoulder.

 

“For you to stop thinking about those good for nothing Westons. Xavier's career is done for and Brody's dead. It's over Quinnie, he can't hurt you or anyone else anymore.” he reassures her softly. “Let it go, honey. Today's not about them, it's about Dani.”

 

The director looks at her, waiting for the okay, before wrapping an arm around her shoulder. He feels the senior agent's head lean onto his shoulder as he pulls her in closer.

 

“ I know all of that Jesse.” Quinn said frustrated as she feels her vision blur with unshed tears. “But I just can't let it go. I thought watching him die would have been enough but it isn't.” She pauses for a moment, taking a deep breath, before continuing on.

 

“After everything Brody's done and got ten away with for so long, it feels like he was the one who got off easy. Mossad's going to cover their own ass and make up some bogus story for the press about his undercover assignment being botched, ignoring the fact that he went rogue. He's going to be forgotten and swept under his agency's rug, just like that without facing any consequences for what he did.” Quinn says feeling her finger nails claw into the sink and her nose flare up the angrier she finds herself getting.

 

“The jackass wasn't even a little bit remorseful for what he did. Instead he justified it by saying that his daddy made him everything that he became!”

 

Jesse takes his hand, rubbing it up and down her arm trying to get her to calm down, only for the senior agent to abruptly push it away as blazing hazel eyes stare at him in contempt. He holds his hands up in surrender and takes a couple of steps back, giving her some space.

 

“Maybe I made a mistake in wanting him dead. Maybe we should have kept the bastard alive and put him through the hell he was so used to subjecting other people through! Hearing him scream in agony, begging for anyone to do something would have made me feel better than I do now! That maybe some justice would have been served that way!”

 

“Quinn, hun, you know that's not true.” Jesse tells her, only to have Quinn shake her head at him. She doesn't say anything for a few moments and clenches her free hand into a fist.

 

“But you know what the worst part about all of this is? Weston doesn't have to face any of the families that he's torn apart or see the lives that he's shattered. He didn't even care that he used his daughter and Rachel as alibis to commit his crimes! The mother of his child and _daughter_ for gods sake!” Quinn shouts putting her hands over her temples. Her gaze falls to the floor for a moment and then she looks into the mirror at her friend.”

 

“In the end, Brody took the easy way out and the bastard got exactly what he wanted. His father's career is destroyed and-”

 

The blond agent stops herself from going on and turns away from him, feeling the brief spurt of fight that she had left in her disappear. As her gazes falls at the bottom of the sink,the blond can't help but hate herself for letting her emotions get the better of her. She didn't want to admit that Brody had gotten exactly what he wanted from her. Or that she might have been wrong in her haste to have him killed. Special Agent Quinn Fabray never doubted herself or her decisions when it came to cases and that when it was all over, it was over. But in this case and Brody for some reason, still stayed with her even though she didn't want him or it too. Is the reason why she wouldn't let this case go is because of everything the rogue agent took from her or nearly took from her. Dani and the baby. The last bit of hope she had of having some sort of family of her own and the sense of security it had brought her had diminished. She nearly lost her team all because he wanted to see her suffer.

 

“And what, Quinn?” Jesse coaxes gently.

 

Quinn turns around facing her down cast eyes to the director but not being able to look at him directly.

 

“That Brody got what he wanted and was able to break me.” she says quietly “He won and I lost everything that was important to me. Maybe it was for the best since I cared more about hunting bastards like Weston than her.” Quinn said defeatedly,

 

Just as she is about to move away, Jesse angrily grabs both of her shoulders and lifts her chin up. He wasn't so much

 

“If that isn't the biggest load of bullshit that I've heard all week, Fabray. The families of the people he has killed will all sleep soundly tonight, knowing that the son of a bitch who killed their loved one is now worm chow, and the people who were protecting him are now out of the job. To top it all off, you and your team did all of this within a seventy-two hour time frame without overtime pay. As far as I and the agency is concerned, this was a damn fine win.” Jesse tells her while keeping his grip on her shoulders.

 

“If you were a bit more likeable, followed protocol more often and kissed the higher ups asses more, you and I would be direct competition for my job.” he says smiling lightly at her, as he tries to lighten up the mood. Unfortunately for him, his attempt at humor fails as Quinn's eyes become more solemn. The director's smile drops

 

“That monster did not break you. He may have kicked your ass around a little, broke a few bones with the occasional contusion here and there, but you are not broken.” Jesse says with conviction, needing her to believe him.

 

“If Russell Fabray couldn't break you all those years ago and let's face it, that man could make Weston look like a choir boy” he says getting a light chuckle out of his friend. “then i'm pretty sure nobody else can. You are one of the toughest people that I know and I'll be damned if this case or that man causes you to question that.”

 

He pulls the blond into a tight hug. The director feels her weakly wrap her arms around him and her head rest comfortably on his chest. They stay wrapped into each other for a few minutes until he feels her back away a little.

 

“Dani loved you with all of her heart. She knew going in that part of being in a relationship with you included sharing you with the job. I'm sure she understood that because she felt the same way about her job.” Jesse tells her reassuringly, only to receive a nod from the senior agent.

 

Quinn steps away from her friend and looks off at the window to the rooftop adjacent to her room and closes her eyes.

 

_Dani's bright eyes shine on you for a moment before looking down shyly blushing. You smile at her and you see hints of a blush painting her tanned cheeks. She looks up, quickly recovering from the surprise compliment, chuckling and then smirking at you._

 

“ _Wow, I thought I would have to die before I ever heard a complement from-” Dani begins sarcastically, but is interrupted by the gunshot. The next thing you see is Dani's body falling to the ground. You look up to find a petrified Noah Puckerman, whose shirt has her blood splattered all over him. You take your shocked hazel eyes off of her and look into the direction of the adjacent rooftop. You swear that you see blue eyes looking directly at you, in pity and in arrogance._

 

“ _This is all because of you, Quinn. Sorry Danielle.” He tells you quietly. A smile forms on his face as you reach for your Sig to find that it's not there. He takes the rifle and aims it towards you._

 

_The last thing you manage to see is Dani's empty green eyes and the red circular exit wound in her forehead, taunting you in your last moments. Then everything fades to black as the last thing you hear is Puck frantically screaming your name._

 

Quinn opens her eyes and sees Jesse's brown eyes staring at her sympathetically.

 

“Where did you go there Quinn?” Jesse asks her tentatively.

 

She shakes her head and walks pass Jesse, heading over to the nightstand. She reaches inside of the drawer and retrieves the green clutch that goes with the dress.The blond rummages through the purse, checking to see that she had everything that she would need. She stops for a moment and looks over her shoulder at Jesse's questioning eyes, giving him a pleading look that asked him to drop whatever questions he had on his mind. He looks down for a moment, silently relenting to her request for now.

 

“We better get going Jesse. The driver said he would be here in an hour and I wanted to stop and treat the team to some breakfast before we head over to the farm.” Quinn tells him quietly.

 

“Are you sure you want to do that, Fabray?” Jesse asks with an eyebrow raised. “ Because if what I witnessed last night, with Puckerman and Evans nearly devouring the buffet line, it doesn't seem like it would be a financially sound choice.”

 

Quinn laughs and walks back over to her naïve friend. Quinn knew that when the boys would eat their weight in food while getting Santana and Tina to tag along, that the three agents and forensic tech were more than likely going to be up until three am burning it all off dancing and drinking. The senior agent in charge was more than sure her entire team, with the exception of herself, Shelby and Jesse; would be fighting their grief and a killer hangover.

 

“I am not worried about them putting a dent in my bank account in the slightest, my friend.” Quinn says patting him on the shoulder. “In fact, I'm pretty sure none of them will be able to stand the sight of food, let alone eat an entire buffet's worth, this morning.”

 

The senior agent makes her way to her hotel room door, sending a quick wink in the senior agent's direction.

 

Jesse stares at her confused, but then shrugs his shoulders. After observing the team the night before, he's learned that it was in his best interest that he not ask them what they did in their off time.

 

As Quinn opens the door, Jesse catches up with her and taps her on the arm. She stops and looks at him quickly.

 

“What is it now Jesse?” she asks.

 

“Dani would have loved to see you in that dress again.” Jesse says proudly. “ You're the spitting image of Grace Kelly's ghost.”

 

She looks down at the flowing dark green dress, blushing a little, while feeling a little insecure about his complement.

 

When she had pulled the dress out of the back of the closet while she was packing yesterday, Quinn was worried that she had forgotten to get it repaired. She had tore it on their first date, even though technically it was an undercover operation. In the process of chasing the suspect, a diplomat who shot a Marine at point blank, her dress split right down the middle of her backside. Luckily for her, it caused her to trip over the guy and make her arrest. After that, Quinn had stuffed the dress in the back of her closet but assured Dani that one day she would get it fixed. Dani loved that dress on her and thought it brought out the green in her cat like eyes more.

 

She smiles at her best friend and raises an eyebrow.

 

“ Thank you, Jesse. You're aware of the saying flattery gets you everywhere, right ?” Quinn asks coyly. Jesse nods at her smiling, happy to hear a little levity in her voice.

 

“Well if I were you, I would save my compliments for Lopez and Cohen-Chang.” Quinn says slyly as she steps outside of the hotel room. Jesse's smile drops and he looks at her in confused.

 

“What do you mean?” Jesse asks, as he steps outside of the room and closes the door behind him. He sees Quinn near the elevator doors, pressing down on one of the buttons. She turns around and smiles devilishly at him and he feels his stomach drop.

 

“You're going to need it when you go to their rooms and wake their asses up for the day. Shell should be up by now and downstairs reading the paper with her tea. You won't get any trouble out of Puckerman and Evans, maybe the occasional grunt or two and a pillow to the face. But Lopez and Cohen-Chang are monsters in the mornings. Especially when they have the hangover from hell and no caffeine.” Quinn says loudly and causally. The elevator doors ping open as the senior agent steps in and waves her friend off.

 

“See you downstairs, Jesse.” Quinn says perkily with an evil glint in her eye. She didn't want to leave her friend in the wind like that, but the senior agent felt like she needed some time to compose herself alone. And she couldn't do that with Jesse breathing down her neck.

 

 

Jesse stares absentmindedly into the distance and watches helplessly as the elevator doors close. His eyes widen in horror and his jaw slacked, he slaps a hand on his forehead, silently cursing his best friend.

 

Puffing out his cheeks a little, he stares at the elevator doors angrily, as if he were willing the elevator to come back up. _Damn it Quinn, when you get better I am going to give you so much paper work to fill out, that your replacement will still be filling out your forms when you retire!_

 

Turning around with a stomp, the director made his way down the opposite end of the hallway, preparing himself for the unpleasant task of being the wake up call for the hung over agents.

 

* * *

 

 

**1300 (1pm)**

 

**The MacKenzie Family Farm**

 

 

The shining black box, with an assortment of floral bouquets and arrangements surrounding it, stood center stage on it's platform in the small, makeshift graveyard. The peppered hair priest, who stood over the center of the coffin in his white robe and purple shawl, looked out into the sea of black wearing mourners, with their heads solemnly bowed as he recited the last two stanzas of the poem. The deceased, Danielle McKenzie- Fabray, requested that it be read at the burial. According to her older sister, it was the poem that her parents had been buried to and she wanted to have it read at her funeral as a tribute to them.

 

“ _Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight_

_Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,_

_Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”_

 

The priest's eyes then glance over to his left to see the two serious red headed men, one who wore the blue and red uniform of a Marine, who he learned was the oldest of the McKenzie clan Michael, donned with decorations on his left shoulder. While the other, Ethan, wore a white tunic with ribbons over his left breast pocket. They are turned and staring in the direction of the crowd with their eyes seemingly focused in one direction. He looks over where they are staring at and it is at a young, blond woman with her hair in curls, standing next to a curly brown haired gentleman with his arms crossed in front of him nodding. They're eyes were filled with support and solidarity, as if they were telling her silently that they were with her. It was the same look he observed them giving her in the church during the ceremony. For a fleeting moment, he wonders if she is the widower of this poor young woman. But he thought better of it not to ask them afterwards.

 

Unfortunately, her eyes are not looking in their direction though as she is staring out past the coffin and into the pasture, avoiding their gazes like she had before. Briefly, he wonders about what could have happened to the young woman in the coffin that would make her react the way she is now. What burden is the solitary blond carrying on her shoulders?

 

He blinks away anymore of his curiosities and turns back to facing the crowd. He wanted to give the young woman's hundreds of admirers enough time to say goodbye before she is buried. The older man had performed many funerals around the area throughout his twenty years of service, but this was the first time he had to deal with this kind of crowd. _She must have been a remarkable young woman to have this many people out here for her._

 

The priest clears his throat and continues on, wrapping up the last part of his service.

  
  


“ _And you, my father, there on the sad height,_  
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.  
Do not go gentle into that good night.  
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

  
  


He turns around and picks some of the black soil on the ground and scatters it on the coffin. He watches as the onlookers stand up from their chairs and make their way to the coffin in a single file line. The priest gives the coffin a silent blessing for the young woman inside, her brothers standing faithfully on the other side of her and the solemn blond in the front row.

  
  


Meanwhile in the line, Tina, who wore heavy eyeliner and donned a dark blue dress with fishnet tights and black heels, is the first in line to see Dani. She twiddles the white rose in her hand, trying to keep her tears at bay. She had been preparing for this day ever since she first heard the news of her best friend's death, but she found herself still not ready for it. She takes her gloved hand and wipes her mascara filled tears, making her way to the center of the coffin. She takes a deep breath as her mind flashes back to a happier time with one of the only person the goth felt understood her best.

  
  


_She holds up the drawing pad , facing it in the direction of the wide eyed brunette. Puck had gone rummaging through Dani's desk again and found her artistic renderings of each members of the team. Dani had drawn Puck with his jaw dropped to the ground as he whistled and catcalled Heather, one of the secretaries. When the forensic scientist turns the page, she sees herself, at least her head,with elongated canines that stretched down the middle, with her body in the form of a bat._

  
  


“ _Is this what you really think of me, Agent McKenzie?” Tina asks, putting her hands on her hips and biting her lip. The truth is, she found this all amusing, but she wanted to make the new agent sweat a little._

  
  


“ _Not at all, Tina. I know all Goths are vampires- or into vampires like that, it's just-” Dani stutters out, wishing she were anywhere but where she is right now. The new agent looks to Quinn for a little support, only to receive a raised eyebrow in return._

  
  


“ _Do you want to know what I really think about it, Danielle?” Tina asks sternly._

  
  


_Before the bumbling agent has a chance to answer her, the forensic tech's stern expression crumbles and in it's place comes a beaming smile._

“ _That this is wicked awesome!” Tina said giddly, watching the other agent's features relax. She rushes over to the brunette and wraps her into a bear hug. “You should definitely do my next tattoo, you see-”_

  
  


When she arrives there, she places carefully places her rose on the center of the coffin. The forensic tech gives a tearful smile to her departed friend and walks away from the coffin. When she makes it to the end of the stairs, she wraps both of Dani's brothers into a tight hug. Each one of their arms go around her waist, holding her for a moment. She steps out of the hug and gives them each a kiss on the cheek.Tina walks down the red carpet and makes her way to the back of the procession.

 

Santana looks down at the coffin, her black ray bans covering her dark circled eyes, with one hand clutching the rose and the other hand trailing the length of the box. She closes her eyes, trying to rid herself of the woman she saw on the autopsy table three days ago. She places the white rose on the coffin.

  
  


“ _Lopez, are you almost done? Puckerman could be back at any minute! Or worse, Quinn could come back and catch us!” Dani whispers as green eyes dart around the bullpen anxiously. “God help you Lopez if I sleep on that hard, sad excuse for a couch and a lecture about how I am supposed to be the responsible one. I'm telling you, I refuse-”_

  
  


“ _Will you shut the hell up McKenzie! I'm almost done, keep your panties on.” Santana whisper agitatedly at her. She clicks on the computer a couple of times, before a malicious smile appears on her face._

  
  


_Dani, hearing the ding from Puckerman's computer, stops chewing on her thumb and looks at Agent Lopez. After Puckerman leaked her wet t-shirt contest photo, she recruited Santana to help her get revenge on him. Knowing how good she was at Photoshop, they found a shirtless picture of Puck and made it look like he was wearing matching leather chaps and a vest, with an exposed hairy chest. They were going to circulate it to every computer within the bullpen, saying that he was willing to be a good bear for anyone that was interested. They waited until Puckerman went out on his lunch break to execute their scheme._

  
  


_Santana stands up out of the chair and steps over to the side. She motions for Dani to take a look at the photo and the brunette breaks out into a wide smile._

  
  


“ _He is going to be very popular with Agent Harrison, if the office rumor mill is to be believed.” Santana said cockily, with a smirk._

  
  


“ _Thank you so much Lopez. This is so much better than that weekend retreat that Fabray was going to force us into going to, as way to keep us from killing each other.” Dani says, patting the other agent on the back._

  
  


Santana looks up at the sky and smiles gently for a moment. She kisses her hand and places it on the coffin before walking over to Dani's brothers. She gives them both a stiff hug before finding Tina. The junior agent opens her arms up for the goth woman and lets her sob into her shoulder, while she tries her best to comfort her.

  
  


Noah steps up to the coffin and places his rose on top of Santana's. He pats the coffin gently and runs his hands through his mohawk. The junior agent looks down on the coffin with an adoring smile as he remembers his 'big sister' and the only woman he would be afraid to sleep with.

  
  


“ _Sexy as I want to be_

_Got these fellas chasin' me_

_It's bout time I hit the streets_

_All my girls be feelin me”_

  
  


_The mohawked agent walks in, wearing nothing but his lucky smily face boxers with his toothbrush in hand. They were placed undercover to tail a female solider who had recently come back from Iraq,only to receive death threats. Dani was posing as her double, while he played the part of the woman's husband._

  
  


_He smiles, enjoying the fact that the other agent didn't know he was in here and looking forward to her freaking out about it, giving him yet another lecture on boundaries. The junior agent had to admit that his partner sounded pretty good for someone singing in the shower. He thinks she could make a career out of it someday._

  
  


_Puck walks up to the sink and starts the water, just as Dani launches into the next verse._

  
  


“ _Media over here_

_Comin through like a world premiere_

_Trench coat and my underwear_

_Let's go with this freak show! It's -”_

  
  


_He smiles into the mirror and puts his toothbrush up to his mouth and sings along to the last note with his unsuspecting partner._

  
  


“ _Outrageous!” They sing at the same time.He turns around and sees his partner drop something onto the ground and looking for her gun. He chuckles at her clumsiness while he takes the toothpaste and applies it on his toothbrush._

  
  


_Puck looks over and sees the shower current move up a little and a pissed off raven haired brunette glaring at him, while clutching the white shower curtain._

  
  


“ _PUCKERMAN!” Dani screams at him as he bends down and spits the toothpaste out of his mouth._

  
  


Puckerman looks down at the coffin as an uncharacteristically soft smile plays on his features.

  
  


“Later baby momma.” he says softly before walking over to her brothers and shaking their hands firmly. He causally walks over to the two mourning girls in the back and wraps an arm around a more collected Tina.

 

Sam finds himself nearly dropping the rose on the ground. He catches it in enough time, but it does nothing to settle his nerves. He feels his palms sweat as he places the white rose along with dozens of other roses, waiting for the guy in front of him to move along. He stares into the coffin and remembers the first case he worked with Dani.

  
  


“ _Evans! I am giving you permission to look up! Because if you drop me probie, I swear that once I am done kicking your ass I will hand you over to my brothers and Agent Fabray!”_

  
  


_Sam looks up nervously, as he struggles to keep the tiny agent on his shoulders. They had been sent to look for the Marine, who was being blackmailed,wife and daughter, only to discover that they were missing. So they planned to break into the house to see exactly what went on and figure out where to go from there. After their unpleasant encounter earlier, he was skeptical to do anything else that might piss off the junior agent anymore than she already was. So as they approached the Watson home, Sam made sure to stay two steps behind the special agent._

  
  


_When they get to the door, only to discover that it was locked, Dani walked around the other side of the house and figured out they could get in through the second story window. She told Sam to hoist her up on his shoulders while she climbed through the window and unlocked the door. He did as he was told and lifted her seamlessly on his shoulders, making sure to keep his head down. Unfortunately for him, the junior agent hadn't had time to change out the white skirt that he accidentally looked up earlier, which made holding her on his shoulders awkward and uncomfortable._

  
  


_Dani had spent the last five minute reassuring him that it was okay to look up, that he wasn't being a perv this time, but the blond probie wouldn't listen. So she glares down at him, after he slips and her leg nearly slips away from his shoulder._

  
_The probie reluctantly looks up and is able to push Dani through the window. He turns around, rubbing his shoulders and waits for her to come downstairs to open the door. Ten minutes pass before the brunette's head pops out of the window, with an eyebrow raised._

  
  


“ _Are you waiting on an special invitation to climb through this window, probie?” Dani asks impatiently,wondering why he wasn't halfway up the patio's rooftop._

  
  


_Blue eyes widen as he stares back at his partner disbelievingly._

  
  


“ _Are you serious Agent McKenzie?”_

  
  


“ _Uh, yeah. Did you really think I was actually going to waste time we don't have by running downstairs and letting you in through the door?” Dani asks amused. “Besides, it's more fun doing this way, you'll see.”_

  
  


_The junior agent winks at him before going back inside of the house. While Sam stares back at the window, momentarily regretting that his request for a transfer._

  
  


Sam smiles down at the coffin fondly, feeling a bit better than he had been when he first walked up there. He makes his way over to her brothers, offering a handshake to both, before walking back over to his team taking his place next to Puck.

 

Shelby  trudges towards the center of the coffin, wiping a few stray tears off of her face in process. She hesitates to put the rose down onto the coffin at first, not feeling like she had any right to. The medical examiner had nearly declined Quinn's invitation to come to the funeral after everything that has happened.But after the special agent in charge came to her office Friday night, looking more worn down and meek than she had ever seen her look and told her that they were taking everyone to Virginia beach tonight, she couldn't find it in her heart to decline.She didn't think she deserved to mourn the passing of her friend because she facilitated in lying for the man who killed her, as a way of protecting her daughter. But the medical examiner was determined to be there for her friends, in spite of her own feelings about being there. 

  
  


“ _That woman is driving me nuts, Doctor!” Dani yells into the room, as high heels stomp into the morgue._

  
  


_The medical examiner was busy stitching up the chest of a young private whose parachute did not open in enough during a drill.She looks up from her needlework, a bit annoyed at the interruption but amused as she observe the angry brunette junior agent walk past her and head straight for the silver cabinet.It just so happens to be the cabinet where she keeps her scotch._

  
  


_Dani takes a hold of one of the tumblers and prepares to pour the amber liquid into it when she suddenly stops. A pout appears on her face as she realizes what she is doing and why she can't do that for the next nine months.She looks over at the blue scrub wearing medical examiner who gives her an amused grin, that she immediately wanted to smack right off of her face._

 

“ _Do I have to give you the lecture on fetal alcohol syndrome, or are you going to put the glass down my dear?” Shelby asks placing the needle on the table._

 

“ _Damn this baby. Damn Quinn Fabray, I'm sorry, Agent Fabray and these hormones!” Dani said as she slams the glass on the silver table. “Not that I'm not happy about becoming a mother or anything because I'm elated, can't wait to welcome our child into the world. But if that means welcoming them into a world that consists of one of his or her mommies obsessively hunting down a rogue Mossad agent and therefore being a hard ass whose getting on my last nerve, then why I can't I do that with booze! And why haven't you scientist come up with an ale or nice wine that won't have an adverse effects to the baby yet!”_

  
  


_Shelby laughs at her friend's unfortunate disposition and understanding completely where she is coming from. She was almost tempted to tell her to try being a surrogate mother for her best friend while still in medical school while trying to keep her sanity._

 

_Instead she walks over to the pouting agent and pulls out a stool. Dani sits down, almost immediately and puts her head in her hands. She screams into her hands and finds herself crying. Shelby wraps an arm around the girl's shoulder and coos to her, like she had Rachel not too long ago._

  
“ _Shh, honey it'll get better. It will all be okay soon.”Shelby reassures her a few minutes later. The brunette agent's cries die down a little and all she hears are little sniffles. “I'm sure once we have Mr.Weston in custody, Quinn will calm down a bit.”_

 

“ _Yeah, I don't think so. She probably still blames me for letting him get away a few months ago and last year.” Dani says tearfully, hating herself for not apprehending him.”It's probably why I'm the only one on the team who was assigned a protective detail. She probably thinks I'm a worse agent than the probie and doesn't think I can protect myself like the others.”_

 

“ _No she doesn't hun. You and I both know that Quinn thinks you're a superb agent. She's just taking extra precautions for you because she cares deeply about you and doesn't you hurt or worse. Especially now that she knows what Brody is capable of.” the medical examiner reassures her._

  
  


“ _Maybe you're right Shell.” Dani said quietly, not quite believing her._

  
  


“ _And with your new condition, don't you think it's better to be safe than sorry? The first few weeks of a pregnancy are always the hardest and the chances of a miscarriage are higher. Do you want to take the risk of something happening to the baby, after all you two have been through to conceive?” Shelby adds gently._

  
  


_Dani nods and stands up from the stool. She gives Shelby a sideways hug and then walks away from the older brunette. As she makes her exit out of the silver doors, Shelby shouts out to her._

  
  


“ _I would recommend holding off on the caffeine too, Agent McKenzie.”_

  
  


_The medical examiner is glad that looks couldn't kill, because she was sure she would be dead with the way the junior agent turned around glaring at her._

  
  


The medical examiner bows briefly toward the coffin and walks over to her brothers. She greets Michael first, who wraps her into a big hug that lasts longer than any of the others he'd given all day.

  
  


“Thank you Dr. Corcoran. We appreciate the work you did on her.” Michael tells her quietly. “She looks really good.”

 

“Anytime, Michael.” Shelby says pulling away. “If you, Ethan or Brooke ever need anything from me, anything at all, don't hesitate to call me.”

  
  


“Yes M'am.” Ethan says nodding. He pulls her into a hug and pats him on the back.

  
  


The medical examiner turns around and walks away from the McKenzie brothers, with a heavy heart. As she walks over in the direction of her other team mates, she finds herself turning around, gaze lingering on at the two brothers once again before quickly facing forward again. She kept her head bowed and moved over to where the team was huddled together.

  
  


Jesse stood in line with the remaining mourners, waiting for his turn to pay his respects. He glances back at Quinn, to see if she was doing alright. She wore the same unreadable expression that she's had since they first arrived at the farm house. It worried him that she seemed to be compartmentalizing her feelings, but it didn't surprise him. She had done the same thing at her mother and sister's funerals. He turns away from her and takes a deep breath, waiting.

  
  


_Jesse walks over to the sleek busy bar, with his recently long curly hair cut short and slick back, wearing a black turtle neck and dark washed jeans. He sits down and signals the bartender over tor order his favorite brand of bourbon on the rocks. After living in a dry country for the last six months, he was going to need all the drinks he could get. Luckily for him, he was able to convince his best friend to come out with him, with ulterior motives._

  
  


_When he had talked to Quinn a few months ago, she sounded lighter and happier than he was used to hearing from her. He suspected that the agent in charge, who supposedly had no time to date anyone, was seeing another woman. As the conversation went on, Quinn confirmed his assertion and reluctantly agreed to let him meet her.Jesse was happy that his friend had finally made time to have a life and be happy for once. But that didn't mean he was going to give his friend's mystery girl the runaround. He had to make sure this girl was good enough for his friend, especially after the last three girls the blond had introduced to him had turned out to be disasters._

  
  


_And if he were being honest, the other reason he asked her to come along is because he wanted to drink until his heart's content without having to worry about how he was going to get home._

  
  


_The bartender sets his order down on the table and Jesse nods at him appreciatively. He holds the glass up and cheers to himself before taking a long sip of the amber liquid._

  
  


_The agent sets the glass down and glances over to his left to see a stunning brunette wearing a short black strapless dress take a seat at the stool. His eyes run over the woman and he can't help but take the time to appreciate what he sees. It had been two years since he last dated a woman. A part of that had to do with the fact that at any given moment, he could be assigned to a different country. Because of that, it left little room for romance._

  
  


_A smirk forms on his face as he turns to face the beautiful brunette. He watches her giggle lightly towards the bartender, thanking him for the drink. She turns facing in his direction, with her lips on the thin straw of her rum and coke. A finely manicured hand waves lightly in his direction with a shy smile and Jesse feels his smile grow wide._

  
  


_He gets off the stool with his drink in hand and approaches the beautiful brunette.Sticking her hand out for him, Jesse grasps her hand and kisses the top of her hand lightly. The woman raises an eyebrow at him and chuckles lightly._

 

“ _Jesse St. James. Is this seat taken?” Jesse asks smoothly._

  
  


“ _Not right now, but it should be in a few minutes.” Dani tells him nonchalantly. “But it's nice to finally put a face to name.”_

 

_Giving her his most charming smile, Jesse takes a seat on the empty stool and sets his drink down on the bar._

  
  


“ _Oh, so you've heard of me, have you?” Jesse chuckles lightly. “All good things I hope.”_

  
  


_She stirs her drink around, giving him a coy smile. “It depends on the day.”_

 

_Jesse laughs, thinking about all the women he had dated who could have possibly come here to talk about him. Most of the women he's dated were in the field of law enforcement and the bar that they were in is frequented by cops. He couldn't imagine all of the stories about him circulating the place good or bad._

 

“ _Really? Care to elaborate?” he asks curiously._

  
_The brunette turns towards him and takes a sip out of her drink._

  
  


“ _Wish I had the time. But unfortunately, I'm waiting for my date to get here.” Dani said, ignoring his question completely._

  
  


“ _But I'm already here.” Jesse says leaning in closer, not wanting to let this girl slip away. He at least had to try and get her name._

  
  


_Dani laughs at him. “ That's very cute St. James, but I don't think Agent Fabray would think that.”_

 

_Jesse looks at the brunette perplexed. How did she know her best friend and why would she be here to meet her?_

  
  


“ _Why would Agent Fabray care about who I pick up at a bar?” he asks, still trying to put the pieces together._

  
  


_During his exchange with the gorgeous woman, he did not notice his best friend maneuver her way through the crowded bar until she spotted her two dates. He also didn't notice the death glare that her hazel eyes had leveed at him when she figured out what he was trying to do. Nor did he see Quinn Fabray cross her arms, standing protectively behind her new girlfriend, waiting for her oblivious best friend to make a wrong move._

  
  


“ _I care if you're hitting on my girlfriend, St. James.” Quinn says lowly._

 

_Jesse whips his head around as he sees the two women lean in and greet each other with a brief, yet somewhat possessive kiss. His jaw drops, not believing that his best friend once again got a girl he was interested in._

 

_When Quinn pulls back and sits at the stool behind the smiling brunette who reaches out her hand once again._

 

“ _Special Agent Danielle McKenzie, NCIS. Like I said before, it's nice to finally meet the infamous Special Agent Jesse St. James.” Dani tells him._

 

“ _You're breaking one of your stupid rules.” Jesse gasps, looking past the agent and to her best friend._

 

“ _Yep, lucky number twelve. Never date a coworker.” Dani says causally, kissing his best friend's cheek, as the blond sits by quietly sipping her beer. Jesse smiles in approval of the fiery brunette. In Jesse's book Agent McKenzie is a keeper. He hopes Quinn doesn't screw this one up too._

  
  


When his turn finally comes, he places the rose on top of the coffin. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he walks over to her brothers and gives them his condolences. He walks over to where the team has made their makeshift meeting place in the back and sits in a chair two rows away from them. They were speaking quietly amongst themselves and making plans to do something together after the reception. He listened on quietly as Puck came up with the idea to talk to the bartender at the Bucket, a bar that the team and most of NCIS goes to and see if he'll put Dani on the wall of law enforcement who were killed in the line of duty.

  
Quinn is the last member of the team to place a rose on Dani's coffin. Unlike the rest of her team and most of the attendants there, the senior agent held a red rose with a couple of stems of lilac tied to it. Her expression had been stony throughout most of the services. And outside of the occasional relative she had met during one of Dani's family reunions, the senior agent mostly kept to herself.

  
Jesse had become a permanent fixture to her side since their arrival at the funeral home. She had heard some of the family gossips speculate that Quinn was sleeping with the curly haired man and that she's a hussy for moving on so quickly. It was starting to grate on her nerves, but she knew that the man had meant well and was just trying to protect her.

 

She also felt the looks that Dani's brothers were giving her. The blond knew that the two men were only trying to be there for her, in there own way, but she just couldn't face them at the moment. Quinn felt like she had broken her promise to them. To protect their younger sister no matter what and she had failed to do that. It was because of her that they would never meet their niece or nephew. She didn't know how the two men could stand to look at her right now, let alone trying to comfort her. Quinn wasn't looking forward to meeting them at the bottom, but she was going to take a page out of Russell's book and suck it up.

  
  


The senior agent walks up to the middle of Dani's coffin, carefully placing the red rose and lilac on it. She looks down at the box longingly and bows her head, standing next to the rectangular box longer than most of the other guests had.

  
  


“I'm so sorry Danielle.” Quinn whispers, finding herself getting choked up and the tears well up into her eyes. The senior agent runs her hand over the length of the coffin one last time.She closes them and takes a deep breath and places her mask of neutrality back on, making her way over to her brother-in-laws.

  
  


Quinn stops in front of Michael, who had his hands behind his back with his head held high. When she was able to get a good look underneath his hat, she sees his uncharacteristically dull, red rimmed blue eyes. The senior agent had a feeling that Michael was taking Dani's death the worst of her other two siblings. He and Dani had been the closest out of the bunch and nearly inseparable because of their similar temperaments. They were both easy going free spirits who knew how to have a good time. But messed with their family or anyone that they cared about and you were screwed. While their counterparts, Brooke and Ethan were more reserved than their siblings.

 

They had even lived together for a short period of time, while Michael was in between tours and Dani had first relocated to Washington DC. Quinn knew how much the man adored his sister and she commended him for being able to stand here as long as he had. Something that she couldn't do at her own sister's funeral.

  
  


The senior agent hesitantly holds her hand out for the Marine to take, only for him to break his serious demeanor and wrap her into a tight bear hug. He clings on to her, which under normal circumstances would make her uncomfortable. She feels him sob slightly into her shoulder as she snakes her free arm around him and rubs his back.

  
  


“It's alright Michael. Everything is alright now.” She whispers reassuringly to him, not really knowing what else to say. A few minutes pass and Ethan silently moves over to his overwhelmed brother and holds onto him. They stay like that for a couple of minutes more before Michael pulls away from her.

  
  


He gets a good look at the senior agent and notices how tired his sister-in-law truly is. He grips her shoulder with one hand and lifts her chin with the other. He had a feeling he knew what was troubling the blond, since it is something he felt whenever he lost anyone in his platoon.

  
  


“It's not your fault, Fabray.” he tells her gently with a slight southern drawl. “ Dani girl knew that something like this could happen on the job. It's why when we found out she wanted to be in the secret service, Ethan, Brookie and I held an intervention to talk her out of it.”

  
  


Quinn chuckles as the Marine's grip on her shoulder loosens.

 

“She made a choice because she wanted to help other people. Bring closure to families who've lost their loved ones by bring the assholes who kill them to justice and she never regretted it. Don't you go around blaming yourself for what happened. Dani wouldn't want you to do that at all. Alright Gunny?” Michael finishes with a bright smile, nearly identical to his younger sister's.

  
  


Quinn returns the smile and watches as Michael stand at attention, placing his right hand perpendicular to his white dress cap.in salute. The senior agent stands at attention as well, ready to salute.

  
  


“Semper Fi.” he tells her, as they bring their hands down in salute.

  
  


“Oorah.” Quinn replies emotionally as she turns around and walks down the pathway away from him.

  
  


Not being able to look back, she walks as fast as she is able to in her heels. As composed as the agent has tried to be, she feels some of her walls crumbling before her. The blond needed to be alone and she couldn't do that with her team crowding, who were currently waiting for her at the end of the pathway ready to catch their leader as she fell.

  
  


When Quinn reaches the end, she doesn't look at any of the concerned gazes of her makeshift family. She ignores any words of condolences or promises of being there for her or Jethro. Or Jesse leaping out of his chair waiting to comfort her like he had this morning She ignores it all and makes her way over to one of the black Yukons outside of the gate.

  
  


She tells the driver to take her back to her room and then she would be ready in less than fifteen minutes to make the three hour trek back to DC. He tips his head at her and starts the engine, ready to pull away from the farm.

  
  


  
  


  
  


  
  


  
  


  
  


 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The poem recited at Dani's funeral is “Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas, the song lyrics at the beginning of the chapter are from Mumford and Son's “Ghosts that we knew” (which coincidentally is part two of Dani's funeral). The song she sings in the shower is Britney Spears “Outrageous”.


	11. Ghosts That We Knew

“ _So give me hope in the darkness that I will see the light,_  
 _Cause, oh they gave me such a fright,_  
 _And I will hold on with all of my might,_  
 _Just promise me that we'll be alright._ ”

* * *

 

**7:30 pm**

 

Quinn takes another large gulp out of her favorite mug until there was only a tiny drop left of the amber liquid. She feels the warm, burning sensation of the whiskey slightly tickle the back of her throat, but pays no attention to it. She sets the mug down on the floor and lays down on the bench and continues what she has been doing for the last three hours, numbly gazing at the dark basement ceiling as she tried to gather all of her racing thoughts. They bounced around in her head like a super ball trapped in a small room. From the team to Dani's devastated family then Dani and their unborn baby. She wants to figure out how one investigation that started out so promising could go so wrong? Was there some sort of sign or clue that she missed in her zeal to get as much dirt as possible as Brody in hindsight?

 

Occasionally, she finds herself gazing over at the spot by the stairs that was once stained in Brody's blood.Sometimes when she closes her blood shot eyes, she'll hear one of his last taunting sneers.

 

_And you need to kill me to taste the sweetness of revenge._

 

 

The senior agent picks up the oval crystal bottle and pours more liquor into the mug. After the chaos surrounding the last few days or so with the funeral topping it all off, she needed to drink as much as her thirty-four year old body would allow. She wanted to forget her week of living hell for a moment. Even if that meant having the hangover to match on Monday morning that no amount of coffee could cure. It was the only thing that she had to look forward to during the silent ride back to the Naval Yard.

 

* * *

 

 

**4:30pm**

 

 

The drive back to the Naval Yard had been a lot quieter than it had been on the way there, the senior agent observed as she looked out the window at the greenery around them. She was grateful that Special Agent Schmidt, a technical analyst at NCIS, did not have an inquiring mind like the other members of her team. When she rushed into the black SUV, he hadn't asked why she wanted to leave so soon without anyone else.In fact, the only time she could recall the young agent speaking to her during was when she first got inside of the car and his quiet announcement that they were getting close to the DC area. It gave her a little time to think about it all without having to worry about the rest of the team's constant probing and looks of pity.

 

 

Having the team there for them along with Michael and Jesse's words of encouragement, had lifted her mood a little. Even though she would never admit this to any of them, the blond did not know what she would do without her second, slightly dysfunctional, family in her life. She probably would not have been able to get through this horrible week without them looking out for her and working tirelessly throughout the week to find Brody.

 

When they finally arrived back to the Naval Yard, Quinn nearly leaps out of the SUV. She barely heard the soft spoken condolences Schmidt had offered her as she slammed the door. As fast as her heels would allow, she searched down the seemingly endless row of cars before finally finding her Charger and speeding home. Her normal thirty minute drive from the Yard to their cul de sac, had been cut in half as Quinn found herself going way over the speed limit to get there.

 

Once she arrived home, Quinn walked through the door and almost tripped over the despondent german shepard laying in the hallway with his head on his paws. She leaned down and scratched behind his black ears, only to receive a quiet whimper in reply. Ever since Dani died, the lively dog's mood seemed to have deteriorated considerably. All the dog does now is sit in the hallway or on the couch, staring restlessly at the front door. The blond

 

When she steps inside of the room, she sees the three silver paint cans from a few months ago, still sitting in their corner of the room that would have been their nursery. They had bought the paint last year, around the time of Dani's first round of invitro fertilization treatments. Quinn initially wanted to carry their child, but because of her position at NCIS, they decided it would be best if Dani were to carry the first time. She remembers how excited they were for Dani's first round of treatments and how they may have gotten ahead of themselves a little with planning the nursery.

 

“ _Whoa,whoa, whoa! What in the world do you think you're doing there McKenzie? You shouldn't lifting anything right now.” Quinn said as she rushes over to the brunette, who was wearing her red and gold USC Trojans basketball jersey, topped with a blue Dodger's hat, at the entrance of the room. She takes the cans away from Dani, in spite of her assurance that she could handle it._

 

_She takes the cans once she has the wired handles secured in her hands and takes them over to the corner of the room on the other side of the bed. Once the cans are on the floor, she walks away from them and looks up to find green eyes staring pointedly at her._

 

“ _I really wish you wouldn't fuss over me like that Quinn. I'm not pregnant yet. I can carry a couple of paint cans without your help.” Dani huffs as she walks over to the cans to bring them back over._

 

“ _I know that honey.”she replies, walking behind the raven haired beauty, wrapping her arms around her waist. Dani half-heartedly tries to move the blond's arms from around her waist. The senior agent grips her wife tighter and ravishes the brunette's neck with a trail of playful kisses up the crook of her neck.She feels Dani playfully slap her forearm but her back a bit further into her stomach. Quinn rests her chin on top of her shoulder and holds her tighter._

 

_They stand there for a moment in silence, reveling the feeling in being in each arms. The couple was elated about the possibility that if all went well with the invitro tomorrow, that they would bebe bringing home a baby in nine months._

 

“ _I just want you to be as relaxed as possible before our appointment with Dr.Olson tomorrow, that's all.” Quinn kisses her cheek and loosens her hold on the brunette. “And last time I checked, lifting paint cans up down the stairs is not exactly conductive to relaxing.” she finishes with a cheeky grin on her lips._

 

_Dani manages to get out of her grasp only to turn around and wrap her arms around her neck. She leans in and kisses the senior agent, letting it linger. When Dani tries to come out of the kiss, Quinn playfully tugs on her bottom lip, causing her to giggle, before pulling away and placing her forehead on the woman before her._

 

“ _Mmm, do you want to know what would **really** make me feel relaxed gunny?” Dani purrs seductively into the agent's ear._

 

“ _I may have a few ideas in mind.”Quinn teases huskily while running her hands slowly down her sides, stopping when her hands reach Dani's hips. She pulls the brunette in closer and kisses her again as her fingers lifting on the hem of her white tank top exposing a sliver of tanned skin. Feeling the brunette in her arms shiver, she decides to tease her wife a bit and runs her fingers along her lower back, slowly making her way up her spine._

 

“ _But why don't you enlighten me, probie.” Quinn husks in her ear._

 

_Dani tilts her head towards the senior agent's ear, taking it between her glossed lips, causing Quinn to close her eyes and mouth open slightly, moaning at the contact._

 

“ _It would really turn me on if you would” Dani whispers as she pulls the blond's head closer. “half of the nursery sky blue and the other half rose pink?” Dani whispers breathily as she nibbles on her ear._

 

_Lost in the trail of kisses the brunette left in her wake, Dani's words don't register with her for a few minutes, as the brunette releases her ear and kisses her way down the right side of her jaw. Dani makes it it to her lips before Quinn realizes what she's said. She moves away from her slightly and looks at the smiling woman before her with a raised eyebrow._

 

“ _I've got to hand it to you Danielle, you almost had me.” Quinn pants with a lopsided grin. Green eyes look on at her hopefully, waiting for her answer. “But there is no way in hell I am walking into our child's room everyday if half of the room looks like a bottle of Pepto Bismol. Sorry baby, not going to happen.”_

 

_Dani's smile drops and a pout forms on her lips. She petulantly takes a big step away from the senior agent and crosses her arms._

 

“ _Oh come on, Quinn!” Dani said exasperated while Quinn shakes her head at her._

 

“ _So it's Quinn now, not gunny or baby?” Quinn teases, trying not to laugh, only to receive a glare from the brunette._

 

“ _It's gender neutral and we'll still have time to repaint it after we find out the sex of the baby or after their born if we don't like it.” Dani explains._

 

“ _Bull. You'll want to change it about a thousand times before the baby is born and I just don't want to go through all of that painting.” Quinn counters. Dani looks like she is about to say something else before Quinn stops her. “And if you think for one second I would allow Puckerman or Evans to help out or come within one hundred feet of our house, you have got another thing coming. Besides, what's wrong with the colors we have they're nice.”_

 

“ _If by nice you mean boring.”Dani mutters. “Grey, beige and Lopez after a bad weekend vomit green? Do you really want our child to be subjected to that in their first five years of life?”_

 

_Quinn laughs while she turns around and walks out of the room into the hallway, leaving a pouting Dani with her arms crossed in the middle of the room._

 

“ _What about canary yellow?” Dani shouts, as one last ditch effort to get a little color into their future child's nursery._

 

_Quinn comes back and pops her head back into the doorway, with a few strands of dirty blond hair getting into her face._

 

“ _That might work.” she says with a smirk before taking her head out of the doorway once again._

 

_Dani is left smiling at the doorway, slowly shaking her head._

 

“ _Oh Lucy Quinn Fabray. I hope you never find out how easy you really are.” she smugly says to herself._

 

“ _I heard that, McKenzie-Fabray!” Quinn shouts from the hallway, listening as Dani's melodious laughter projected throughout the room._

 

Quinn is brought out of her memory when she feels herself shiver slightly. She looks up to see that she is standing underneath the vent for the air conditioning, noticing that it has just kicked on. She then looks down and sees that she is only clad in her black bra and matching boy shorts. The blond moves over to the black dresser drawer and pulls out her old grey and black USMC sweater with a pair of black leggings. She slips them on quickly and makes her way out of the room, quietly shutting the door on her way out.

 

When the senior agent gets downstairs, she sees that Jethro has made his way onto the living room floor, staring at his paws. She walks up to him and rubs his head.

 

“You'll be alright buddy. We both will eventually.” Quinn tells him softly.

 

He whimpers quietly before scooting away from her, keeping his eyes on the mahogany floor as the agent sighs sadly. She stares at him for a few minutes more, wishing that there was something that she could do for their beloved six year old dog. She thinks about taking the dog camping or maybe drive down to Virginia Beach to visit Dani out at the farm when they're both feeling up to it.

 

After a while, Quinn walks away from their mourning dog and makes her way to the basement, leaving the door wide open. She turns on the light at the top of the basement stairs and makes her way down the steps. When she gets to the bottom of the stairs, the blond goes over to the Oakwood cabinet her mother left her, in the corner of the room. She searches through the cabinet and finds her black mug facing down on the shelf and the remaining half of a bottle of Russell's best homemade scotch sitting next to it. Quinn had managed to smuggle it out of the house while he left to go set the kitchen timer. Russell had gotten it as a gift from her grandfather on the day he married her mother. It was an old Fabray recipe that was passed on the male Fabrays on their wedding day. Since Russell didn't have any boys, he had passed it along to Adam, Franny's husband, instead on their wedding day. She had hoped that Russell would suck up his pride and continue on the tradition by giving the recipe to herself or Dani when they had gotten married.

 

Unfortunately for her, that didn't happen. Instead, she had received a letter saying that the recipe belonged to the Fabray family and that she was no longer a part of it.

 

The senior agent twisted the cap off of the bottle and filled the mug to the brim with amber liquid and takes a large sip out of it afterwards. She had a feeling that she would be tossing the bottle by the end of the night.

 

* * *

 

**7:45pm**

 

Three hours of listening to the air conditioning kick on and off repeatedly along with the occasional honking coming from cars outside while laying on the bench staring up at the grey bricked ceiling, the Quinn begins to feel the effects of the whiskey. She could feel her head begin to spin and throb.The blond was sure that if she tried to sit upright, the little breakfast she managed to eat this morning would come back up. Her mouth felt dryer than death valley and she didn't think she could move from this spot if she tried.

 

The blond agent felt a strange sense of disappointment in herself for not making a bigger dent in the bottle that still had about a quarter of the whiskey left. But she didn't think she could stomach any more than what she's already had. During her days as a jarhead, the blond had been able to drink most of her platoon under the table during their designated nights off. And still be ready lively and ready to go the next morning after. At least after her large cup of black coffee. Now the thought of drinking more than a half a cup of whiskey every other night made the blond's stomach squirm.

 

Putting an arm underneath her head, the blond looks over to the now spotless ground, where ring of blood around the rouge agent had once been. The strong scent of cooper that permeated throughout the air on Friday after noon and haunted her senses, was now gone. The basement smelled like old moth balls and paint thinner once again.

 

She commended the crime techs and clean up crew on the nice job they had done with the basement. It was as if no one had been killed in the first place. It had taken them a few hours to pick up Brody's body, take photos of the scene and clean up the pool of blood on the floor. When the investigative team arrived, Quinn was able to get Rachel, who managed to pull herself together long enough to talk to the investigating agents, to corroborate the story that she had come up with.

 

They told them that Brody had broken into the senior agent's home, intending to kill her and the blond fired the shot that killed him out of self defense. Rachel had heard the noise on her way home from a walk and went to see what the commotion was. By the time the brunette had gotten there, Brody was dead.

 

Quinn had a feeling that Agent Cornelius, the lead agent on the investigation, didn't buy their story, but he certainly wasn't about to question it. However the rouge agent died, it seemed to be a public service as far as he was concerned. Dani had been a good friend to him and he was glad somewhat glad to see her assassin get his due. He and his team left shortly after questioning the two of them and offered his condolences to Quinn on his way out. She remembers seeing him sitting near the back row with his wife and oldest son in tow at the service this afternoon.

 

As the throbbing in her head grew, her thoughts begin to drift to the liaison and her young daughter. The brunette had left soon after the CSU team and agents, not saying a word to her. She did see a look of remorse and sorrow in Rachel's eyes as before she turned her head back down. The brunette wouldn't even look at her when she had tried to thank the liaison for having her back. By the time Quinn had found something to say to the grieving officer, her front door had been closed gently. The agent had intended to ask Jesse about Rachel and if she planned on going to meet Brody's father in London, where she was told his body was being taken to first before heading back to Tel Aviv. Unfortunately, with her mind on Dani's wake and funeral, she hadn't had the opportunity to ask him.

 

Quinn wonders how the brunette was coping with Brody's loss. Even though she hated the guy, she understood that he was also a big part of Rachel's life once. She wondered if the liaison had anyone in the area who would be there for her and the little girl? She was sure that Beth would be too young to remember anything about Brody, so it wouldn't effect her in any way now. But what's going to happen to the toddler when she gets older and notices that he isn't around? What is Rachel going to tell her when Beth will inevitably want to know what happened to him?

 

The sound of the doorbell and Jethro's barks brings Quinn out of her thoughts. She raises herself from the bench, feeling her vision blur and her head begin to spin. It felt like someone was obnoxiously kicking a soccer ball around while playing the drums and blasting Screamo metal at the same time in her cranium.

 

_Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to drink this before eating after all._ She lays back down on the bench and closes her eyes, hoping that whoever was at the door didn't want anything important. Maybe whoever it was didn't want anything important. Eventually, if she were lucky, they would take the hint and leave her alone.

 

Unfortunately for the senior agent, luck didn't seem to be on her side tonight. The doorbell chimes loudly again and Jethro's barks grow more agitated. Coupled that with the beginnings of a hangover, it made it practically impossible to ignore either one of them anymore. She begrudgingly lifts herself up and tries to sit up without toppling over. She feels herself wobble a little too far to her left side but manages to catch herself and sit upright once again. The blond stands up from the bench, slowly and makes her way to bottom of the stairs.

 

Once she gets there, Quinn trudges up each step and keeps her right hand near the wooden railing at all times. She feels herself stumble a bit on a couple of the steps but she is able to make it to the top without falling on her face. When she gets past the hallway, she hears the doorbell ring again.

 

“Could they please stop with the damn door bell already.” she mutters, making her way past the kitchen.

 

She stops and leans over holding her forehead as she feels the bile trying to make its way up her throat. The short haired blond takes a deep breath in and slowly brings herself back up feeling her stomach gain control of itself.

 

Quinn gets closer to the door and sees the tan brown dog standing protectively at the door barking. The chime goes off once again and Jethro's barks get louder. She finds herself glaring at the door, preparing to rip into the annoying neighbor on the other side.

 

“I'm on my way!” Quinn shouts to the increasingly aggravating person on the other side of the door as she lightly pushes Jethro into the living room. As he leaves, the dog makes his way to the living room and climbs onto the couch, continuing his incessant barking.

 

Neglecting to look through the peephole, Quinn unlocks the top and bottom locks of the door. She takes the lock off of the door knob, turning it afterwards.

 

“I'm not interested in whatever you're-” Quinn starts to say as she flings the door open.

 

“Hello, Agent Fabray.” a soft voice shyly interrupts her tirade.

 

“Selling.” Quinn finishes, staring at the liaison with a slight frown.

 

The senior agent looks up, surprised to see the somber brown eyes of Rachel Berry as she holds the giggling toddler on her hip. The brunette had her bangs brushed to the side and had a large green Whole Foods bag in the hand that wasn't holding onto the playful toddler. Quinn noticed that the tanned brunette looked a little paler than she had a few days ago and there were dark circles around her eyes. The confidant bravado the liaison had exuded throughout the investigation seemed to be absent, as she noticed Rachel refusing to look her in the eye and instead focus her attention on the green shopping bag.

 

The blond attention was then drawn to Rachel's tiny companion. The little blond is playfully reaching for her mother's gold star of David necklace, that slips out of her chubby little fingers, causing her to giggle harder as it falls back into place.

 

“ Berry? How are you?” Quinn asks, slurring her words a bit as she leans back against the door feeling her head spin and wishing that she had grabbed some water before answering the door.

 

“And what are you and mini Berry doing here in the middle of the night?”

 

Hearing how bad the NCIS agent sounded causes Rachel finally look up at the blond, giving the NCIS agent a troubled glance.

 

“We're managing. But Agent Fabray, it's eight o'clock in the evening.” Rachel replies, her tone laced with worry. “Are you feeling alright Agent Fabray? Because if you aren't, Beth and I can come back another time when you're feeling better.”

 

“No it's alright Berry, I'm fine. Just a little exhausted after the week from hell” Quinn tiredly chuckles, hoping it would loosen the liaison up a bit. Unfortunately for her, it has the opposite effect and causes Rachel to glance down at her feet guiltily.

 

After a brief, uncomfortable silence, Quinn quickly decides to steer the conversation away from the last week and move on to something else.

 

“You don't have to be so formal Berry. Outside of the Naval Yard or bullpen, you can call me Quinn or Fabray.”

 

“Alright Ag-” Rachel begins nervously but stops when she looks up to see the senior agent glaring at her. “Quinn.”

 

“Better.” Quinn says, nodding her head in approval. She crosses her arms over herself and leans against the door.

 

“So, what are you doing here? I thought you and Beth would be halfway to London by now?” The senior agent looks at the liaison confused.

 

Rachel sighs and looks down again briefly trying to figure out exactly what to say to the senior agent. She didn't even know what she was doing here if she were being completely honest with herself. One minute, she was running around the kitchen, taking the meat lasagna she had prepared for Beth out of the oven as well as the last batch of papa Leroy's famous 'I'm sorry' sugar cookies. The next minute, after her brief conversation with Jesse in which he told her that Brody's body had arrived at Heathrow on time, she is standing on the doorstep of someone that more than likely hated her's doorstep with an excited Beth, who was just seemed happy to get out of the house past her usual bed time.

 

Looking up at bloodshot hazel eyes, Rachel smiles at her half-heartedly.

 

“Well, with everything that's been going on, I realized that Beth and I haven't properly introduced ourselves to the new neighbors. So I figured since you live in this neighborhood too, that I would start with you first.” Rachel says nervously, hoping that the senior agent would by it or at least pretend to and not question her about it for now.

 

Quinn raises a perfectly sculpted eyebrow at the liaison and crosses her arms.

 

“You realize that there are six houses in between my house and yours that you could have started with?” Quinn asks curiously.

 

Rachel narrows her eyes at the senior agent challengingly.

 

“How do you know where I live? I don't recall telling you my house is. For all you know, I could be living right across the street.” Rachel says as she turns around and points at the house across the way.

 

“Seriously?” the senior agent asks, who was torn between being annoyed at the woman in front of her and amused. Rachel nods for her to continue on.

 

“First of all, Dani and I have lived in this neighborhood for nearly ten years. In all the time that we've lived here nobody, to my knowledge, has moved out. It's always been the Henderson’s, the Sanchezes, Colonel Fehey, Mrs. Jackson, Mr. Shaw and the Hummel's. The only person who has moved out is Mr. Shaw because he is moving to Florida to live out the rest of his golden years. Windsurfing with other retirees now that his son's family has moved there.”

 

“Second of all, I was the one who gave Shelby the tip about Mr. Shaw's house. The one you just so happen to move in to, right next to the Hummel's place. She said that she had a friend who was moving to DC and needed a safe area for her and her child.” Quinn says with a smirk,watching the brunette become flustered.

 

“And I know that a lot has happened in the last forty-eight hours, but did you forget that I had Puckerman and Lopez tail you around all day? If I remember correctly, Lopez said something about the troll moving into my neighborhood.”

 

A hint of red blush appears on the liaison's face.

 

“Point taken.” the liaison says a bit embarrassed.

 

“Now are you going to stop avoiding the question and tell me why you're here and not over there with him.” the NCIS agent asks bluntly as the brunette looks over to the side. “Or did you just come over here to try and outsmart a drunk, off duty NCIS agent?”

 

Not wanting to have this conversation out here, Rachel points towards the inside of the house.

 

“Is it okay if we talk about this inside? The lasagna and cookies are going to get cold.” Rachel asks quietly as she picks up the green bag and shows it to the blond agent.

 

Quinn studies her for a moment trying to determine whether or not she wants to hear what the brunette has to say or not. There was a part of her that was interested in what the brunette had to say, but at the same time she wasn't. The senior agent wanted to know how much Rachel actually knew of what Brody was doing or how much her father had really told her about the rouge agent. But if this was going to be another non apology from the agencies that she belonged to, then she was going to send the brunette on her way and tell her to wait and meet her at the Naval Yard tomorrow to do it in front of the rest of the team.

 

Then again, there was something in the liaison's disposition that told her that this was not going to be one of those apologies.

 

A minute goes by before Quinn finds herself stepping away from the doorway and walks over to the marble island and sitting down in one of the tall barstool chairs, giving Rachel and the excitable toddler silent consent to follow behind her.

 

The liaison sets her bag on top of the counter top and then tries placing Beth in the unoccupied circular barstool next to Quinn. The little girl's little hands held a vice grip on her necklace. It takes her a couple of minutes to pry the golden star out of her hand, but eventually she succeeds. A small pout appears on the two year old's face and she starts to whimper as her current plaything was taken away as the liaison steps away from her daughter's reach and moves to the other side of the island.

 

 

Rachel then takes the tin of lasagna and two plates full of the white frosting 'I'm sorry' cookies and sets them down on the counter.

 

“The plates are in the cabinet to your left, the one closest by the fridge.” Quinn says quietly, not lifting her head up.

 

Rachel looks away from the bag and over to the resting agent, who had started to massage her temples while keeping her head down on the marble. She can't help but notice and be concerned that the blond looks worse today than when she had walked away from the agent two days ago.

 

“Thanks.” Rachel replies gratefully, as she walks over to the cabinet in question. She pulls out two green plates, one for the senior agent and Beth and sets it in front of the two of them. She reaches into the green bag and pulls out a black spatula. The brunette lifts the aluminum off of the clear, glass pan and cuts two square end piece of the cheesy pasta, placing it on Beth and Quinn's plates respectively.

 

The mouth watering aroma being emitted from the pasta dish causes Quinn to lift her head up and look at it questioningly as Rachel sits down on the remaining barstool closest to Beth. Her stomach was begging her not to eat anything at all, but the senior agent knew that this could make her hangover less hellish in the morning.

 

The liaison puts her hand on Beth's fork from her when the two year old happily started stabbing the top layer cheesy layer and her tiny brown eyes lit up in excitement when the tomato sauce gushed out of the large hole. She places the fork back in the two year old's had, facing the four prongs downward and cuts up half of the little girl's piece for her. Once the toddler began to yank Rachel's hand away from the fork, the Mossad operative lets go of it, leaving the girl to it.

 

Brown eyes look over towards the senior agent, who she noticed hadn't even picked up the fork. She turns toward the blond, who looked as if she were still trying to decide whether or not she wanted to pick up the spatula, and rests her hand on her chin.

 

“Unfortunately for me, this lasagna isn't very vegetarian friendly.” Rachel jokes, noticing the senior agent staring skeptically at the food. “Everything in it is one hundred percent slaughtered cows topped with their milk used to make the cheese. It's safe to say that it's carnivore friendly, Quinn.”

 

Quinn turns her head slowly, mindful of the throbbing in her head, quickly glancing at the liaison and shrugs. She picks up the spatula, cuts a corner piece of the pasta and then puts it on her plate.

 

“Beth refuses to eat anything without any whole milk or meat in it.” Rachel explains. “So far my efforts in introducing her to a vegetarian dietary plan, have thus far, been unsuccessful. She's a full fledge carnivore like her papa Leroy....and her father.” The liaison says the last part quietly as she looks down at the granite countertop.

 

The senior agent's gaze goes from the plate to the brunette, noticing the sudden change in Rachel's demeanor. Quinn didn't know why she cared about what was going on in Rachel's head. Was because ever since the brunette rang her doorbell, she had been the only person not to look at her with pity and instead understanding? Or was it because she felt like she owed the Mossad operative something because she had inadvertently asked the Mossad operative to kill the father of her child in cold blood?

 

Whatever the reason, Quinn found herself needing to know what Rachel was thinking at the moment and if it had been the same thing she had been thinking whenever she walked past her basement door.

 

But she wasn't going to pressure the Mossad liaison into talking, at least not at the moment. She would give the brunette some time to get comfortable here before she would bring up the elephant in the room.

 

Quinn picks up the fork and cuts a piece into the rectangular shaped pasta and places it in her mouth. She feels a spark ignite in her tastebuds as her mouth becomes overwhelmed with flavors of the pasta.

 

When she is about halfway finished with her piece, Quinn looks up at the Mossad liaison, who is wiping a little red sauce off of Beth's chin.

 

“Mmm. This is amazing Berry.” Quinn complements as she takes another big forkful of her lasagna.

 

Rachel smiles at the senior agent. “Thanks. The sauce comes from an old Berry family recipe.”

 

“Any chance of you sharing it?” Quinn asks as she stuffs another mouthful of the pasta.

 

“I could.” Rachel says leaning her head on her hand with a smirk. “ But I doubt you'd want a pissed Leroy Berry with his old service weapon knocking up your door at 3 am.”

 

The liaison looks over to her daughter, to find the two year old stabbing her food and splattering the red sauce all over the plate.

 

The blond stops eating for a moment and looks at the brunette agent quizzically. “It's knocking down your door Berry.”

 

“Excuse me?” Rachel asks looking away from the toddler and towards the senior agent.

 

“You said 'knocking up your door' and the phrase is 'knocking down your door'.” the senior agent corrects her and then sets down the fork.

 

The liaison's eyes blinks a couple of times in confusion and then widening.

 

“ My apologizes Quinn.I guess abandoning my routine eight hours of sleep a night regimen the last couple of days, has effected my cognitive abilities more than I anticipated.” Rachel giggles half-heartedly.

 

The senior agent places the fork down for a moment and hesitates before saying anything to the Mossad liaison.

 

“Would your sleep deprivation be the reason why you're not back in Tel Aviv with Brody?” Quinn asks carefully. She picks up her fork once again and prepares for the blowback.

 

Rachel freezes and turns her head, her gaze landing on the basement door. Her hand unconsciously feels around her hip for her Sierra, but she remembers that she placed in her gun safe after coming home on Friday.

 

The brunette starts to hear Brody's voice ringing loudly in her ears.

 

_Rachel turns away from the wall and positions herself in the middle of the entrance of the basement door, waiting for him to make the wrong move. Even though she had been hiding around the corner, the liaison had heard enough of the conversation to know that Brody was for certain, culpable in Agent McKenzie's death._

 

_As soon as he was done with Agent Fabray, she was going to make her way downstairs, hoping to cuff him as quickly as possible without much incident. But from the sounds of where their conversation is headed, Rachel had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach that there would be no peaceful resolution with Brody._

 

“ _Not at all, Fabray. Rachel was just a pleasant, yet convenient distraction for my father. She is more or less the child he's always wanted more than I could ever be. When she got pregnant a couple of years ago, I saw that as the perfect opportunity to execute my plan, seeing as how he was more concerned about Rachel and Beth's welfares than keeping an eye on my activities.” Brody explains causality. “Just like Agent McKenzie's pregnancy was my opportunity to get to you.”_

 

_The liaison had to bite down on her lip to keep herself from yelling at her former boyfriend. She couldn't believe that the boy that she thought she had loved could be so cold and calculating. He knew that Agent McKenzie was pregnant and killed her anyway without a moment's hesitation. The thought made her sick to her stomach as she started to wonder what else her asset could be capable of._

 

_Rachel found herself raising the Sierra, taking the safety off and aiming it at the back of the rouge agent's head, preparing to take the shot._

 

“Maybe.” Rachel says dismissively, hoping that Quinn will drop the subject for now. Feeling the tension grow in the room, Rachel quickly tries to recover with a joke.

 

“Or maybe it's the work of a two year old who doesn't quite understand what a hangover is and why mommy needs to sleep a little more.”

 

Rachel chuckles as she strokes the hair of the distracted toddler with a fake smile.

 

She looks up at the NCIS agent narrowing her eyes at her, as if they were both back in the interrogation room. She sighs and glares pointedly at the agent.

 

“Brody doesn't need me nor Beth there. He has his father taking care of his funeral arrangements and I'm sure all of his friends, if he still has any left, from the agency will be there to mourn for him. As well as the many women he was sleeping with besides me. Beth shouldn't have to endure a twelve hour flight for nothing.” the liaison says coldly.

 

“ Brody was her father, for good or for bad. Don't you think that she should get the opportunity to say goodbye to him?” the blond says causally as she picks up her fork and starts chewing again.

 

“When was the last time Brody actually acted like her father? Was it before or after he killed four people in cold blood because his father cared more about the job than raising his sociopathic son?” Rachel asks venomously.

 

“ Why do you even care so much Agent Fabray? Weren't you the one who wanted the” Rachel snaps as she brings her hands to cover the oblivious toddler's ears. “-bastard dead? Now that he is you suddenly care about how it'll effect Beth?”

 

Quinn glares at the brunette.

 

“Yeah I did and I'm glad that he's dead. Doesn't mean that Beth shouldn't have the opportunity to say goodbye to her father. No matter how crappy he was to the rest of the world, somewhere in his warped mind, he probably cared about Beth even if he couldn't care about you.” Quinn replies defensively.

 

Rachel laughs cynically. “Spare me Fabray, do you honestly believe that? We both know that isn't true.”

 

“The only things Brody was capable of loving or caring about was himself, power and getting back at daddy Xavier. Everything and everyone else were just unfortunate pawns in his endgame. He used his own dead mother as an excuse to exact revenge for his unresolved daddy issues.” she rants on angrily.

 

The liaison takes a deep breath and sighs. The brunette looks down at her newly manicured hands and starts picking at the nails.

 

“As much as I want to believe that Brody on some level, cared about Beth, deep down I know that he didn't. He just wasn't capable of it.” the brunette finishes cynically.

 

Sensing that the conversation was over for now and the Mossad operative was not going to say anything more, Quinn nods and turns away from the brunette.

 

Rachel on the other hand, had found herself thinking about everything that had happen since leaving the senior agent's house. Over the past couple of days, Rachel had not been able to say the former agent's name or think about him without getting angry or feeling the bile rise up her throat.Thinking about all of the things that he had done to those people and what he almost did to Quinn, made her feel sick to her stomach. The knowledge that he would have gotten away with it and that the people around her knew what was going on but didn't feel tell her about it. That coupled with the guilt of having five deaths on her conscience, had kept tossing and turning restlessly the last couple of nights.

 

As the two blondes eat, Rachel glances over to an old photo of Quinn and a brunette, who Rachel assumed to be Agent MacKenzie. The former marine had her arms loosely wrapped around the waist of the brunette and they were looking at one another and smiling at one another as if they were the only two people in the whole universe and in that moment, nothing or no one else mattered. It was in that moment that the liaison realized that she couldn't recall ever sharing that kind of intimacy with Brody, the man who fathered her child. She realized that it was never love that the two of them shared together, but convenience. He was the first boy who looked at her like she was his entire world, when in hindsight it was all an illusion to get to what he really wanted. The way that Quinn looked at Agent MacKenzie though, was the way that you were supposed to look at someone that you wanted to spend the rest of your life with. And because she refused to see what was in front of her all along, Quinn would never look at Agent MacKenzie that way again. 

The thought alone caused a little bile to rise up in Rachel's throat. She immediately turned away from the once happy couple, not being able to stomach looking at first hand the only family that the agent in charge had left. She closes her eyes and breathes in deeply, remembering the events of the last couple days that have led her to Quinn's door.

 

 

* * *

 

 

**Friday 5:25pm**

**Berry Residence**

 

 

_When she found herself in the safety of her new home, Rachel turned around and locked all five of the doors locks. She then leans against the door and reaches into the tight pocket of her skinny jeans and pulls out her white Iphone. She goes into her call log and scrolls down to the second name in the log, the one she seemed to call more frequently than she had in the past. Hiram._

 

_The phone rings three times, which was unusual for an emergency line, before Hiram's secretary finally picks up._

 

“ _Hello this Officer Rachel Berry and I need to speak to Deputy Director Berry, it's urgent.” Rachel says in Hebrew._

 

_The woman tells her to hold on while she connects her through. The liaison begins tapping her boots nervously onto the hardwood floor. She looks down at her shirt and sees the big, red splotch of blood splattered all over her shirt and nearly loses it again. Rachel was grateful that Beth was staying with Shelby for a little while and the little girl wouldn't have to see her in distress._

 

_It doesn't take long for Hiram to pick up the phone._

 

“ _Deputy Director Berry” Hiram said disinterestedly in English, as if he was expecting her call._

 

 

“ _The asset, Agent Weston is dead.Special Agent in Charge Quinn Fabray of NCIS killed him after he broke into her basement.” Rachel says with a little quiver in her voice._

 

“ _I know. Director St.James informed me of his death twenty minutes ago as a curiosity call .” Hiram says calmly._

 

_Rachel's eyes squinted a little, questioning why he was taking this so well. She knew that the Director had not liked Brody at all, but she figured that he would be pissed that one of his best assets was now gone._

 

“ _He was planning on killing Agent Fabray's team and forcing her to commit suicide afterwards.” Rachel says after pausing for a moment, trying to see if she could get a reaction out of him this time. But all she got was silence on his end._

 

_Clenching her phone tighter in her hands, Rachel wondered how much more the Director knew that he was not telling her and for how long he knew._

 

“ _Agent Weston was also responsible for the murders of former officer Levena Newborn and her husband an ATF Agent, Ambassador Hellman and NCIS Agent Danielle McKenzie, who was pregnant at the time of her death.” She hears him take a deep breath and pause before replying to her again.” I'm certain that at least three of those were committed while he was on leave from his assignment.”_

 

“ _Okay.”_

 

“ _He was no longer acting as an agent of Mossad, but as one of Hamas. Brody's plan was to turn on us as soon as he got out of Paris.” the liaison says with her voice rising in frustration._

 

“ _I know all of this Rachel. I've had my suspicions about Brody and his intentions for a long time.” The Director informs her exasperated, wanting to get to the point of this conversation sooner._

 

_Rachel confusion grows at the the blasé attitude that the new Deputy Director was had about their current situation. She was expecting him to be angry and calling for her resignation. She was expecting that he would be calling for Agent Fabray's badge for blatantly disobeying orders or going on a witch hunt for one of his people. But she did not expect him to be this calm and rational about this new information._

 

_Unless he knew everything that Brody was up to all along and they were purposefully keeping her out of the loop._

 

_Those bastards! Rachel thinks herself._

 

_The liaison feels her eyes widen and her hands tremble as she struggles to hold the phone up at the sudden realization. Hiram knew from the very beginning what kind of person Weston was and yet he authorized her to be his handler with Xavier's enthusiastic endorsement. It all began to make sense now._

 

“ _You knew.” Rachel says definitively as her glare on the hardwood floor harden._

 

“ _I know a lot of things Officer Berry.” Hiram replies sarcastically._

 

“ _I know that one of my best moles is now dead because of a zealous NCIS agent who was looking for blood to spill because she failed to do her job right and protect her team. I know that the only reason why said agent was able to connect those murders to Brody, giving them a reason to execute him, is because they had access to your supposedly confidential logs. Tell me Rachel, do you want to take another stab as to what else I may know, hmm? Because one of those guesses would involve setting one of your own people up to be assassinated!” Hiram finishes bellows angrily._

 

“ _Do not try to blame this on me Hiram! Whether you want to believe me or not, I didn't have a choice! They were going to arrest me for treason and take Beth away if I didn't follow their orders!” Rachel shouts back as she moves away from the door._

 

“ _Unfortunately for you, they don't see being a mole as an excuse for being a murderer!”_

 

“ _Do you really think they would have taken the child away from you officer? Even if they had, you should have trusted us to find a way to get the child back to you!”_

 

_Taking a deep breath, the liaison calms herself down a little bit._

 

“ _Why should I trust you and that man now, father! You placed me as a handler for a cold blooded killer and you want me to trust the two of you to have NCIS give my daughter back with an apology and fruit basket? No way!” Rachel shouts as she moves away from the door. She starts pacing the floor of the entryway._

 

_He doesn't give her a chance to respond and he launches into an explanation._

 

“ _He was a valuable asset to Mossad and the CIA. In spite of his many faults, he was the perfect mole. The information that he obtained from Hamas has prevented terrorist attacks against Israel and several other nations.” Hiram says diplomatically, causing Rachel's blood to boil over even more. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.”Thanks to him, our last couple of joint operations have been-”_

 

“ _Don't you dare start with the diplomatic song and dance that we feed to the other agencies! He was a double agent, plain and simple! Weston only told us what we wanted to hear! He was planning on screwing Mossad over when the first opportunity arose! If this were any other agent you would have thrown him in jail or gotten rid of him with no questions asked!” Rachel finishes dramatically, throwing her keys onto the countertop._

 

“ _Tell me father, why was he special enough for you and Xavier to cover up his crimes?” Rachel snarks._

 

 

“ _Because I know this has nothing to do with being a 'valuable asset' to the agency. You could have trained anyone in Mossad to do the kind of infiltration that Brody was doing and they would have done it better. You could have chosen someone more reliable than he ever was. So why him?” the brunette liaison challenges._

 

_As Rachel waited for a response from the new Deputy Director, she couldn't help the hint of a smile that appeared on her face, as she imagined the kind of snarl her father would have given her if she were there. For once in her thirty years of life, Rachel had gotten the best of the great Hiram Berry. If the circumstances wouldn't have been as dire as they are at the moment the liaison would be celebrating._

 

_The icy tone of the Deputy Director threw any illusions of self congratulatory celebrations out the window._

 

“ _Thirty women.” Hiram says in a monotone._

 

“ _Sir?” Rachel asks confused as to where Hiram was going with this._

 

“ _There were thirty of the best women the agency had to offer who wanted the assignment that you were given. They were career driven Mossad agents that have been here for a lot longer than you had. Some of them had even climbed the ranks of the IDF before joining Mossad and whose resumes were far more impressive than a girl whose only experience is working a desk at the CIA!”_

 

“ _Three of them were summa cum laude's at Oxford, Yale, and Cambridge respectively after they served their mandatory two years. These women had waited patiently and dreamed of the opportunity to help infiltrate Hamas and to have a charge like Brody. They would have done anything and everything to keep that boy focused on the primary objective and made sure that their covers or the covers of their assets weren't compromised. They would have willingly laid down their lives for this agency and have made sacrifices that you could barely dream of making! They wouldn't have squandered away this opportunity to move up like you have, Officer!”_

 

_As Rachel was preparing to defend herself, the deputy director stops._

 

“ _They would have known that Brody could never be trusted. That he was someone to be disposed of when he was no use to us anymore. They certainly wouldn't have conceived a child with that no good bastard! Hell, they probably would have had the sense enough to use birth control or gotten rid of the child!”_

 

“ _Did you know that Eli wanted to get rid of me after Xavier and I went over his head and made the decision to appoint you as Brody's charge? He said that you just weren't ready and that you needed more time and more experience in the field before we had you handling an asset. He wanted to have his daughter train with you and maybe you would have been ready in few more years!And you know what I said to him?” Hiram pauses briefly._

 

_Not giving her the opportunity to answer, the director continues on._

 

“ _I said that if Rachel had even an ounce of my ambition, relentlessness and persistence, that she would be the only person for this job and would do fine.Because of your personal history with him, I vouched for you. I assured him that what you lack in experience, you make up for in your ability to pick up any skill that you would need quickly. Xavier and I became personally responsible for you and guaranteed that you would not disappoint this agency or me.”he finishes the last sentence softly.  
_

“ _For once, I guess he was right. You weren't ready for the responsibilities and everything else that this job entails. Maybe I should have picked one of those women instead of you. At least our asset would still be alive then.”_

 

_Rachel's phone trembled in her hand as she fought to figure out what to say to the director. She was furious at the man's audacity to try and make it seem like she had been the one that had failed the agency. That she was the one who didn't do enough to protect Brody from NCIS when in fact, the brunette had protected him until the end. If anything, it was Xavier and Hiram that should be blaming for the way things had turned out, it should be them. After all, they did breed a monster and didn't expect any blowback from it._

 

 

_She wanted tell him that she was the one responsible and not Agent Fabray just to rub it in his face. The liaison wanted to say that if she had she known that her bosses had been covering for him all along, that she would have gladly handed them over to NCIS without any remorse. She wanted to defend herself and her professionalism from his attacks. He may have had a say in getting her in with Mossad, but she had ultimately gotten into the CIA through her own merit, not his. She wanted to tell him how he didn't need him to get her internship and that she wouldn't need him when she leaves Mossad. That she and Beth would get along fine without him_

 

_She couldn't believe that Hiram would resort to using one of the same tacts that she had witnessed him use on her father Leroy during the many arguments that they had. He probably thought that she was still the twelve year old girl, looking for her daddy's approval. She wanted nothing more than to tell him to get use to disappointment, since he had certainly put her and her father through enough of it during her tumultuous childhood._

 

_But she wouldn't. As much as Rachel wanted to rail against her father, she knew that it would be a fight she would never win. Hiram would wither find another way to make her feel worse than she already did or he would find a reason to stonewall her transfer to NCIS. And it was a complication that she just did not need right now._

 

_So she decides to nod her head and pretend to agree with what he is saying. Then find a way to end the conversation as quickly as possible._

 

_Refusing to let the director know that she was close to breaking down, Rachel bites into her lip._

 

“ _Your transfer to NCIS, maybe it's all for the best. You were never the right fit for Mossad anyway.” Hiram says after a while. “If you decide to go back to the CIA, they will probably have you demoted or placed on desk duty as a punishment, at least for the time being.”_

 

“ _Whatever you say sir.” Rachel says hoarsely. Feeling a couple of tears leak from her eyes, she looks down at the floor. “Director I have to go. Dr. Corcoran should be dropping Beth off soon. She's going with her team to Agent McKenzie's funeral in Virginia Beach and they're leaving tonight.”_

 

 

“ _That's fine. Send Agent Fabray my sincerest condolences and let her know that I've had flowers sent to the gravesite on my and the agency's behalf the next time you get a chance speak to her.” Hiram requests formally._

 

_The liaison hangs up, not bothering to answer him and throws the Iphone to the other side of the room, not carrying if it broke. She stomps through the living room and into the kitchen, making her way over to the stainless steel refrigerator._

 

_Yanking open the door, she pulls out three green bottles of the organic red wine that she had brought the other day and slams the door shut. The brunette then walks out of the kitchen and goes back into the living room. She walks around the back of the black faux leather couch and plops down on the cushions. Rachel pops the cork of the bottle and in a few seconds time, chugs a fourth of the bottle down her throat and then setting the bottle on the glass coffee table. She placed her head in her hands and cried at the mess she found herself in._

 

Rachel was brought out of her thoughts by a tiny hand pulling on her shirt sleeve. She turns to see the toddler, with her face covered in red sauce. The remaining pasta left on her plate looked as if it had been torn to shreds.

 

“Are you full sweetie?” Rachel asks as she takes the blue napkin out of the ring.

 

“Yes mommy, down now?” Beth asks impatiently, trying to wiggle out of the chair.

 

Rachel picks up the green napkin next to her plate and wipes the little girl's puffy cheeks. Beth moves her head from side to side, trying to keep away from the napkin.

 

Quinn looks away from her empty plate to watch the mother-daughter exchange.

 

“Elizabeth Brice Berry, is that how we ask for things?” Rachel asks sternly, watching the little girl lower her head.

 

“No mommy.” Beth shyly replies. The two year old lifts her head up and gives her mother her biggest and brightest smile.

 

“Down now, please mommy?” the toddler asks again while tilting her head to her right side and folding her hands.

 

The senior agent smirks at the sight and watched as Rachel playfully roll her eyes. The blond could easily imagine a young Rachel pulling the same stunt on her fathers at that age.

 

“I guess I can let you down this time.” Rachel sighs dramatically. She lifts the little girl in her arms and sets her on her black skirt clad lap. “ But stay where I can see you, okay?”

 

“Yes mommy.” Beth says, ready to jump out of her mother's arms.

 

Rachel gives the toddler a sloppy kiss on her left cheek and blows her a raspberry as the girl giggles heartily. She sets the toddler down on the floor and watches her run off away from the kitchen and into the living room. The brunette then swivels her chair around facing the living room.

 

She watches her daughter stop in front of the German Shepard and reach out her hand to touch his nose. The dog lifts his head up and looks at the young girl, tilting his head questioningly, nearly made Rachel get out of her seat. The former liaison had one brief interaction with the dog when she was lying in wait in Quinn's guest bedroom. It had taken her a while to get the dog to calm down before Brody showed up and she was concerned at how he was going to react to Beth.

 

A stuffed Quinn looks over at Rachel and notices the liaison tense up. She copies the brunette and swivels her chair around as well to see what has the young mother concerned. She sees that Rachel's gaze is trained on Jethro.

 

“Don't worry Berry. Jethro couldn't hurt a fly.” Quinn reassuringly tells the young mother.

 

Rachel turns and looks at the blond in disbelief.

 

“Based on my experience and what I've from a certain Director, that's not exactly true.”

 

Quinn raises a perfectly sculpted eyebrow and crosses her arms, knowing who that someone was.

 

“St. James conveniently left out the part where he threatened to have Jethro euthanized for leaving a special present in his very expensive Salvatore Ferragamo Stefano pebbled black leather oxfords.” Quinn said, as a ghost of a smile appeared on her lips. “He was only a puppy after all.”

 

Rachel laughs loudly, for the first time since this ordeal began and shakes her head.

 

“Aw now that explains it. Poor Jethro, he was only trying to make friend.” Rachel says sarcastically.

 

“Don't feel too bad for him. I'm sure he'll come to a temporary truce with Jesse now that he's going to see him more often.” Quinn banters back, making the Mossad liaison laugh a little. “They'll kiss and make up eventually.”

 

They turn back toward the living room and watch as Jethro hesitantly licks the toddler's palm as she starts giggling. She takes her hand back and starts patting the dog's head.

 

“Doggy! Doggy!” Beth squeals excitedly as she plops down in the spot next to the german shepard. When she stops patting his head, Beth takes both of her hands and goes over the black and brown fur. Jethro responds by nuzzling his nose further into the carpet and starts tapping his tail on the floor.

 

Rachel looks on and gives a beaming smile at the scene in front of her. She wanted to cry at how at happy and oblivious the little girl seemed to be in spite of everything going on around her. She was almost relieved that the little girl would have little to no memories of her father, so it wouldn't be as traumatizing for her. She wouldn't have to worry about answering questions about how he died until she was much older. Not that she would have been able to give her the answers she was sure Beth would be looking for anyway.

 

“You know, you're pretty good with her Berry.” Quinn says softly, leaning her head on her hand.

 

Rachel turns quickly towards the senior agent.

 

“I apologize Quinn, what did you say?” Rachel asks a bit startled.

 

“I said, you're good with her.” Quinn says pointing towards the toddler, who was now leaning against the german shepard's back. “Beth. She's lucky to have you as her mother.”

 

The senior agent looks at the little girl with a longingly. Watching Rachel interact with the dirty blond toddler since their arrival, had made her think about Dani and their unborn baby.

 

She imagined a little blond and brunette child playing rambunctiously on the carpet with one of Jethro's chew toys, teasing the old german shepard to follow them. While she read on the couch with Dani lying on her chest, playfully telling them to stop messing with Jethro. The senior agent sighs heavily as she realizes that it was just another dream put on hold, thanks to the job.

 

“Actually, I'm the one that's lucky to have Beth. She's been a welcomed distraction from the rest of the world”

 

Rachel thought about how Beth's light-hearted, childlike disposition kept her sane and functioning after her mini meltdown friday night.

 

_When Shelby dropped her off, Beth's face was the first one that she saw as her mother announced that she was leaving. The two year old, who apparently hadn't had any sleep since she dropped Beth off with Shelby this afternoon, refused to settle down. So Rachel was forced to carry her upstairs to her mattress in the master bedroom. Since moving to DC, she hadn't had the opportunity to set up her room or assemble Beth's crib. So the little girl has been sleeping on the mattress with her until then._

 

_When she tried to laying the little girl down on the bed, the toddler started to scream and wail. Her cries turn into sniffles for five minutes before the upset toddler is wailing again.As Rachel cradles her a little bit faster, she suddenly realizes why her daughter refuses to go to sleep._

 

_Ever since Beth was born, Rachel would always sing to the little girl to get her to sleep. It didn't matter if the liaison was on assignment at time, whenever she could manage it, she would sing her daughter to sleep. She couldn't believe that she had forgotten to now._

 

_The brunette slows down her rocking and softly begins to sing “Somewhere over the rainbow”. Beth's cries suddenly stop and by the time she reaches the second to last verse, the toddler's eyes begin to close droopily._

 

“ _Someday I'll wish upon a star,_  
Wake up where the clouds are far behind me  
Where trouble melts like lemon drops  
High above the chimney top  
That's where you'll find me  
  
Oh, somewhere over the rainbow way up high  
And the dream that you dare to, why, oh why can't I? I?”

 

_By the time Rachel is finished, Beth is snoring soundly in her shoulder. She carefully moves the little girl away from her shoulder and gently places her onto the mattress. The toddler then turns her head slightly and puts her thumb in her mouth, without waking. The liaison then places a kiss on her little star's temple before pulling the large comforter onto her and settling into the bed._

 

_The liaison takes a hand and lovingly strokes her daughter's dirty blond locks. Beth may have happened a little sooner than she had planned, but she just couldn't imagine her life without her. Her mind goes back to her conversation with that she had with the new second in command of Mossad. She can't recall the last time civil conversation she's had with him that didn't involve Mossad and his duties there getting in the way. She starts to wonder when the love of his job superseded the love he supposedly had for his family? Did he ever really love her and daddy Leroy at all or were they just another tool to increase his pull in the agency?_

 

_A few years ago, the brunette could honestly say that she would have ended up like Director Berry. Constantly climbing the ranks of the Mossad, while still working with the CIA. She estimated that had she managed to stay alive long enough, that she would eventually become director of Mossad. It had been her goal since she decided to leave her Broadway dreams behind. She wasn't_

 

_But now as she watches her daughter's chest slowly rise and fall, Rachel couldn't imagine missing a moment of this little girl's life like Director Berry had with her. Mossad hadn't been everything to her like she once thought. She didn't want to die young and leave Beth with her father Leroy. She wanted to be there and every single one of the little girl's firsts. This week and everything that has happened with Brody only solidified her decision to leave Mossad behind in order to have a more nine to five life at NCIS._

 

_She turns over, facing the ceiling and starts thinking about Agent Fabray. She thinks about everything Brody had taken away from her in the span of a week. The thinking about the missed opportunity for the senior agent and agent McKenzie to have moments like this with their own child, unceremoniously stolen from them made her heart break for the stoic agent ._

 

_She sees flashes of Agent McKenzie's autopsy photos, as well as the ultrasounds of the fetus suddenly appear on the ceiling. While the senior agent's quiet, yet ominous words of caution during that interrogation replay in her ears. How she could have easily been in Danielle's position had he not needed her for his alibis.How he could have just as easily killed Beth if Rachel stood in his way. She resisted the urge to turn over and hold onto Beth tighter and never let her go._

 

_When Rachel finally felt her body succumb to the exhaustion of the past week, she silently resolves to do anything in her power to make amends with the senior agent and her team for all of the chaos Brody wrought into their lives. As soon as the blond had gotten back from Virginia Beach, the brunette vowed that she would explain herself and her actions the last few days to the senior agent, hoping that the blond would be able to forgive her one day._

 

Seeing Beth close her eyes and nuzzle her head further into Jethro's fur, Rachel swivels her chair around until she is facing in direction of the blond agent, who didn't even blink at the intrusion or turn to acknowledge her. Instead, she noticed the quiet blond's eyes staring longing at her now sleeping daughter.

 

Quinn suddenly steps away from her and walks into the living room until she gets to Jethro and Beth while the liaison follows closely behind her. She lightly pats the german shepard on the head. The blond agent turns around and looks over at the liaison then looks down at the sleeping girl. Rachel nods her head and watches the senior agent cautiously lifts the little girl in her arms and gently sets her at the far right end of the couch. The blond then takes the blue and white stripped Afghan, that was hanging on the back of the couch, and places it over the toddler. She then takes the sides of the afghan and tucks them into the couch, making sure that the toddler was secure on the couch, and she carefully sits down in the middle.

 

Rachel takes a few tentative steps closer to the rug. She stops when she gets to Jethro, who silently stands up and makes his way over to his owner's feet. Instead of lying down, he sits on his two hind legs and allows the blond to rub his head. After a couple of minutes, Quinn lets go of the dog's head and turns her attention back to the sleeping toddler.

 

“I never saw myself having kids.” Quinn reminisces, breaking the comfortable silence. Hazel eyes look up at Rachel. “ After I came out to my parents and they kicked me out, I said I wouldn't have any of my own.”

 

Rachel looks at the senior agent quizzically, surprised at the woman's candidness.

 

“Why not?”

 

The senior agent hesitates for a moment as her eyes turn a dark green as a storm of conflicting emotions pass over her. She wasn't used to being this honest with anyone. Especially someone that only a couple of days prior, she considered to be the enemy. Maybe the whiskey was making her soft or she really needed to vent to someone who she thought would understand. Tomorrow, when she's sober, her walls would be back up and in full force.

 

 

“Russell.” Quinn gulps. “ I didn't want to become the kind of parent he was. I was afraid that one day, when our baby wasn't a baby anymore, he or she would piss me off and push my buttons the same way I always did to him. And that I would start drinking like he did to deal with it all.”

 

The senior agent closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.

 

“Then one day, they would push me too far and all of the pent up resentment would bubble over and I would say or do something so horrible, that it would push our child and Dani away for good. And by the time I had woken up and realize it, they would have already moved on and wouldn't need me in their life anymore.”

 

Rachel's mouth opened a little as she tried to find the right words to say to the senior agent that would console and fix her. But unfortunately, she couldn't because she was stuck in the same limbo with her father just like the senior agent.

 

“But Dani, she insisted that it wasn't true. That there was no way that someone who cares about people as much as I do, even though I don't show it, could ever be as cruel as Russell was to me. She was confident that our child would turn out okay and that we would do the absolute best that we can for them. I didn't believe her at first, I thought she was just trying to make me feel better.” A faint smile appears on the senior agent's face.

 

“It wasn't until we caught a case, involving a blind girl did I actually start to believe her. Her name was Sandy Watson. Her father, Captain Watson, was being held for ransom. They were going to kill Sandy and her mother unless he had a few million dollars wired to their account. Eventually, they let Sandy go and handed her over to us as a show of faith. Her mother was still held captive though.”

 

“Sandy was a brilliant and brave little girl. She could correctly and exactly tell you what pitch someone was speaking in. She could hear you talking, even if it was just a faint whisper from a few hundred feet away. Although it was a bit of pain in the ass at times.” Quinn laughs a little and even gets Rachel to smile a little. She leans back into the couch, playing with some of the white and blue yarn of the afghan, before continuing on.

 

“Dani took to the little girl immediately. She was so gentle with the girl and they got along so well in the short time that she had spent with her. I think she growled a little when Sandy wanted to hear the video of her mother to try to help us pinpoint her location.” Rachel sees a brief flash of pain as Quinn drops the yarn and puts her hands on her legs.

 

“And when we recovered Sandy's mother and sent them home, I saw how defeated she looked. While we were finishing up the paper work, I noticed that Dani hadn't really spoken to anyone while we were doing reports like she normally would have. And when Puckerman cornered her and asked what was bothering her, she told him that she wanted to be a mother someday, but knew it wouldn't happen as long as she was with me.” The senior agent looks down.

 

“When we were lying in bed that night, with her wrapped tightly in my arms, I told her that I wanted a baby with her, that I was finally ready.” the blond agent smiles a little. “ I'd never heard anybody scream and cry as loudly as she did that night. I also told her that if I screwed up at this parenting thing, it would be her fault. And you know what she told me?”

 

Rachel shakes her head and looks down, as she tries to keep the senior agent from seeing her cry.

 

“She said that it would be a  cold day in hell before I became the kind of parent that Russell was to me.”Quinn finishes and a couple of tears slowly roll down her eyes then quickly wiping them away. "She believed that our kid would be lucky enough to have the both of us as parents. Guess we'll never know, now will we?"

 

“I'm so sorry Quinn.”Rachel whimpers tearfully, not being able to hold it in anymore. A river of tears rolls down the Mossad liaison's face as she trembles.

 

Quinn scrunches her face in confusion. She never thought she would see the day where she would witness a Mossad agent breakdown in her living room.

 

“ For what, Berry?”

 

“For Brody. For interfering with your investigation. For Agent McKenzie and the baby. For my father and his asshole colleague. For everything Quinn, I am so sorry.” Rachel confesses, sobbing at every other word.

 

Quinn glares at the Mossad liaison and abruptly stands up from the couch. She walks over to the brunette, who is trying her best to contain her cries so they don't wake the sleeping toddler. The blond then takes Rachel by her arms and moves her facing towards her.

 

“Look me Berry.” Quinn says quietly, yet as sternly as possible. Rachel just shakes her head downward, closing her eyes and refusing to look at the senior agent.

 

The blond agent then takes a finger under her chin and gently tilts it forward. “Rachel, look at me.”

 

Rachel reluctantly opens her doe eyes and stares at the senior agent sadly.

 

“It's alright. You were doing your job and I shouldn't have given you as much crap about it as I did. If Lopez, Evans, Dani, or hell, even Puckerman were in the same position as Brody, I would have fought like hell to protect them too until I knew otherwise. You didn't know what he had done and that's **not** your fault.” Quinn says softly but with conviction and receives a nod from the brunette in return. Assured that Rachel was okay, the senior agent lets go of her arms and takes a step back.

 

“If you don't mind Agent Fabray, I was wondering if it was alright to hug you?' Rachel asks shyly.

 

Quinn looks on at the officer, dumbstruck. But if it would ease a bit of the Mossad liaison's guilt and get her to stop crying, then she wouldn't mind the temporary discomfort.

 

She nods and reluctantly holds her arms out to the brunette and watches as Rachel rushes into them. The liaison then wraps tightly wraps her arms around the senior agent's abdomen. She lightly places her head on the senior agent's shoulder and sobs a little bit more.

 

The perplexed senior agent stiffly stands there for a moment before loosely placing her arms around the brunette, lightly rubbing her back. They stand there for a few minutes,with the blond whispering consolingly that the liaison would be fine and then Rachel pulls away. She takes one of her her hands and wipes the tears away from both sides of her face.

 

“I'm sorry, Quinn.” Rachel said flustered. “Sometimes I can get a little beside myself.”

 

“It's alright Berry, it happens.” Quinn shrugs it off. “I don't want to hear another apology come from those lips. Understand? You're breaking rule number six.”

 

Rachel looks at the senior agent quizzically. “What?”

 

“Rule number six. Never apologize. It's a sign of weakness.” Quinn explains as she turns away from leaving the Mossad liaison dumbfounded. After a few moments, Rachel breaks out in a fit of giggles, remembering what a colleague at the CIA mentioned to her about Quinn's rules.

 

“So, that's actually for real. It's not an urban legend? You really have a list of rules that you make your team live by?” the brunette says laughing. She looks over at the blond to see that she was giving her death glare. The liaison immediately stops laughing and looks down as if she were being scolded.

 

“Yes I do.And I make sure that my team knows these rules and takes them just as seriously.” the senior agent explains pointedly.

 

“As one of my drill sergeants used to say, 'everyone has to have a code they can live with'. The rules are my code. I have about fifty of them, so far. All members of my team are expected to follow my rules as long as they're working under me.”

 

“I see.” Rachel says inquisitively while crossing her arms as Jethro walks over to the senior agent. “Do you have these rules written down in a handbook somewhere?”she takes a couple of steps toward the blond. “And how did you come up with these rules?”

 

“That Berry-” Rachel takes a couple of steps forward, leaning in closer to hear the story. “is another story for another day.” the blond agent finishes mysteriously, taking a step backwards.

 

She brings the stunned liaison's attention to the toddler sleeping on the couch. “I think you should probably get the little one out of here, it's getting late.”

 

Rachel nods and walks over to Beth. She carefully picks her up, causing the toddler to stir a little and carries her out of the living room. The senior agent follows, making her way into the kitchen and picks up the liaison's bag. She heads over to the door, where the brunette has just

 

When Rachel steps outside, the senior agent hands her the bag. Quinn then leans on the door and scratches the back of her head a little.

 

As Rachel tries to take the afghan off of the toddler but the agent takes one of her hands and places it on the liaison's.

 

“Leave her in it.” Quinn insists.” Bring it back whenever you feel like it, now that you're my new neighbor.” The blond smiles softly at the two as she pulls her her hand away and steps back into her doorway.

 

Rachel returns the smile with one of her own. “Thank you Quinn, I'll be sure to do that.”

 

“You can bring the plate back whenever as well. No rush.” Rachel turns and begins to walk away. _Maybe this move wasn't such a bad idea after all. Especially with the elusive Agent Fabray as a neighbor._ The brunette thinks to herself as she walks down the walkway, away from the senior agent's house.

 

“Hey Berry!” Quinn shouts out, causing the brunette liaison to stop and turn around.

 

“Next time you and mini Berry come over.” Rachel nods. “Call first. I don't like surprises.”

 

“Is that another one of your rules?” Rachel asks playfully. She receives a smirk from the blond agent.

 

“Nope. But if you stick around long enough, you should stop by the bullpen and ask Puckerman why he doesn't pay me anymore surprise home visits.” the senior agent says mysteriously before closing the front door.

 

Rachel looks at the closed door with a confused gaze and then laughs a little at the blond agents antics before she turns back around and makes the short journey back to her house. The only thought running through her mind is how she can't wait to unravel and figure out the mystery that is Agent Quinn Fabray.

 

* * *

 

**3:30 am**

**Fabray residence**

 

Hazel eyes open up squinting, as she feels something stroking through her hair. She looks down and sees Jethro is sleeping quietly on the floor. She looks up and sees three short, perfectly french manicured nails continuing their motions through her hair. They stop when Quinn opens her eyes fully and sits up on the arm of the couch. The hand slowly moves away from her hair.

 

“Wake up gunny.” Dani says softly as she use her hand and lightly traces along the agent's jawline.

 

The next thing the senior agent sees is the sparkling green eyes that have made constant appearances in her daydreams and nightmares as of late. She suddenly remembers the last time she saw those eyes, they were a darker and filled with rage as the woman told her that the team would be better off if she killed herself.

 

She did not respond the raven haired beauty's touch. It startled her to see the eyes before were lighter in color, almost translucent. They seemed calm and serene. The joy and lightheartedness that had been absent from them had now returned. For a moment, Quinn felt like she had her Dani back. So she leaned in and allowed herself to get lost in her touch.

 

Dani goes on for a few moments more before she stops.

 

“You were late to my funeral.” Dani quietly observes. “ Not that it surprises me in the least.”

 

Quinn turns and turns over to get a better look at her. She was wearing a grey sweater vest with a white blouse underneath along with a black pencil skirt. Her make up applied as perfectly as it had been at the funeral home. Her eye make up made her green eyes more vibrant than they normally were. She was also wearing a blue and white ribbon with the matching star dangling from it.

 

She shakes her head at her wife.

 

“Although, you would think that you would show a little more decorum for the dead at their funerals at least.” Dani teases while putting a hand on her hip making the senior agent laugh loudly.

 

“Sorry probie, I'm from Ohio. The closest thing I've had to decorum is making sure my church dress was nice and pressed for Sunday .” Quinn tells her quietly.“But, I'll try to remember that for the next funeral I go to.”

 

Dani moves away from her and makes her way to the other side of the couch. She moves over to the middle cushion while Quinn moves her feet off of the couch and places them on the floor. The brunette sits down, with her knees as closed together as possible and leans back into the couch.

 

Once two agents get comfortable on the couch, they spend a long time in silence. Quinn turns her head and stares at the brunette's profile. She takes one of her hands and reaches out for the other woman's, like she had ten years ago when she realized she was falling for the secret service agent while they were undercover. When Dani gives her hand to her, the blond starts rubbing little circles around it.

 

“Why didn't you tell me-” Quinn asks carefully. She sees Dani's free hand go to her stomach. “About the baby?”

 

The brunette takes a deep breath before she answers. She stares into the dark and doesn't bother

 

“You were carrying enough stress on your shoulders, with Brody after he kidnapped me. I figured that adding a pregnancy to the mix would send you over the edge.” Dani replies softly. She turns her head facing the senior agent. “I was going tell you as soon as we got back to the naval yard after the shootout. But we both know how that turned out.”

 

Quinn takes a deep breath and gulps hard. “ Had I'd known you were pregnant, I would gone to Director Schuester and had her give Brody's case files to another team. You know that right?”

 

Dani laughs a little. “As sweet as the gesture is, Lucy, we both know that you would have never done that. You probably would have place me on desk duty and had an even tighter protective custody assigned to me. But you would have _never_ given another team the opportunity to bring in Brody.”

 

Quinn starts to interrupt, but Dani places a finger on her lips.

 

“Because _that's_ who you are, gunny. You never back down from anything no matter what the cost.” the brunette tells her with conviction.

 

 

She gives the senior agent a few moments to give the opportunity for her words to sink in for the blond. She moves her fingers away from the agent's pouty lips and smiles at her.

 

“ It's part of what makes you extremely sexy yet at the same time very frustrating.” Dani jokes. They share a few laughs before the brunette leans in and kisses Quinn soundly on the lips. She pulls away quickly, not giving the senior agent enough time to extend the kiss. Quinn looks away from her wife and stares down at her hands.

 

“Yeah well, look what good would that have done me? The only thing that mattered to me, outside of the job, you and-” Quinn says, taking her hand and caressing Dani's stomach. “ our little bean are gone. A little girl is going to grow up and find out what a monster her father was. And her mother has to live with the guilt of being blind to the truth and killing the father. Was it all really worth it in the end?”

 

Dani takes one of her hands and places it on the senior agent's back. “ Rule number eleven. When the job is done, walk away.”

 

Hazel eyes filled with unshed tears stare at the former agent quizzically.

 

“It's what you told me after the Watson case. It's what I'm telling you right now, Lucy.” Dani instructs her comfortingly. She pulls the blond agent into her.

 

“Walk away, Quinn. You did your job and caught the bad guy. It may not have turned out the way you wanted, but there's nothing you can do about it now. Leave it all behind now and move on to the next case.” the brunette tells her, hoping that the senior agent would understand the double meaning behind her message of comfort.

 

Quinn lets the tears she refused to shed burst out. She feels herself shaking and her vision blurs as she attempts to regain her composure. She wraps her arms around Dani and places her head into her shoulder.

 

“But I can't, Danielle.” Quinn cries are muffled into the brunette's shoulder. “I can't just let you go. Not like this”

 

Green eyes look on sympathetically. “I'm afraid you're going to have to, Lucy. You don't have a say in it this time.”

 

“I'm so sorry, Danielle.” the senior agent sobs. “I'm sorry I couldn't do more to protect the both of you.”

 

“I know you are gunny. I know.” Dani whispers softly into the blond's ear.

 

An hour later, the senior agent's head is in her wife's lap. The raven haired brunette had let the blond agent cry into her shoulder for a few more minutes until she tired herself out. She then suggested that Quinn lie down again and they have been like this ever since.

 

“ So, what's the deal with my replacement, Officer Rachel Berry?” Dani asks jokingly.

 

“Nothing. No one will be able to replace you on the team Dani and you know it.” Quinn says seriously.

 

“Still the sweet talker, aren't you Fabray?” Dani bends her head down, briefly kissing the senior agent. When they're done, the brunette leans back into the couch.

 

“She seems nice, a bit of a fire cracker.” the brunette observes.

 

“She is definitely something else alright.” Quinn mutters.

 

“Her kid is adorable.” Dani continues on.

 

“That she is. Berry is in for a lot of trouble when she gets older.”

 

“And from what I hear, Santana can't stand her.” Dani stops stroking the senior agent's hair.

 

“She's not in Santana's top ten list of favorite people. Then again, I don't think anybody is on that kind list for Lopez.” Quinn says while laughing.

 

“Perfect. It'll keep Lopez on her toes and her ego in check.” Dani smiles, imagining all the grief that Agent Berry will give Lopez while she was in town.

 

Quinn just nods with a smile. She opens her mouth and starts to yawn and her eyes begin to droop close. It was only a matter of time before the senior agent would fall into a deep sleep, the first time since Dani bled out on the roof.

 

“You're not going to be here when I wake up in the morning, are you?” Quinn asks sleepily.

 

“Would it make you feel better to know that I wish I were going to be here?” Dani asks, hoping to make the senior agent feel better.

 

“No, it won't.” Quinn says tiredly.

 

“I thought as much.” the brunette says somberly. She leans down and places a kiss on the senior agent's temple. Quinn closes her eyes and let's sleep overcome her.

 

“I miss you Dani, so much.” the blond agent says dreamily. A minute later, the senior agent is fast asleep.

 

 

* * *

 

**5:30 am**

**Fabray Residence**

 

Quinn wakes up from her deep sleep to the pitch black darkness of the living room. The warmth that she felt when Dani was with her, was noticeably absent. She lifts her head up slightly and turns to the other end of the couch, hoping to find Dani sitting there once again watching her sleep like she had every morning. She was hoping that this week had been nothing but a dream

 

Unfortunately, there was no one waiting for her.

 

Quinn groggily turns over to the inside of the couch, A couple of tears come out of her eyes as she stares at the couch pillows. The senior agent ends up not going back to sleep.

 

When her phone alarm goes off, she doesn't bother moving to turn it off. She lets it keep going until it shuts off automatically.

 

At nine am, the senior agent calls Jesse and asks to use the personal time she's had built up for the last nine years. He gives it to her without any hesitation and assures her that the team would be exactly as she left it when she decides to come back. He tells her to take all the time that the senior agent needs to start healing.

 

When the new director hangs up, with the promise to check in on her after work, Quinn places her head in her hands and cries silently for the rest of the day.

  


  
“ _But the ghosts that we knew will flicker from view  
And we'll live a long life”_

 

 

 

 


	12. A New Hope

**2 months later**

 

_Quinn feels the rays of sunshine beaming on her face. She tries to turn away from their bedroom window, only to be stopped by the lump in the sheets and greeted with a mouthful of blond hair. A pair of hazel green eyes stare right at her with curiosity. He reaches his finger out and points it towards her face, while the other hand sits underneath his head._

 

“ _Michael Christoper Fabray, what exactly do you think you're doing?” Quinn asks hoarsely._

 

“ _Watching you sleep.” the little boy answers in a casual drawl._

 

_Raising an eyebrow at the little boy, Quinn then turns to him fully and sits up on her arm._

 

“ _And why would you be doing that?”_

 

“ _Because mommy told me that if I woke you up before you had your morning super juice, that the monster would come after me.”_

 

_The blond narrows her eyes at her son and moves in closer._

 

“ _Well bud, you should have listened.” Quinn whispers in a low growl. Before the five year old has a chance to get away, Quinn lifts him up with both of her arms and tosses him in the air. He squeals at the intrusion and tries to kick out of his mother's grasp._

 

“ _MOMMY stop! You're not s'pose to do that!”_

 

_She tosses him on the bed and holds on to the boy tightly. She then blows a raspberry into his cheek a couple of times. She lets go of the boy and he thinks that this is his chance to get away, only to be surprised by the hands drag down his sides tickling him. He breaks out into uncontrollable giggles._

 

_The two blonds are so busy laughing that they don't hear the footsteps of the raven haired brunette. She causally leans on their bedroom door, watching the two loves of her life play and joke around without a care in the world. With what she and Quinn do for a living, they needed some form levity. And fortunately, it came in the form of their five year old son._

 

_When the older blond gives up and dramatically falls back onto their kingsize bed, Dani finally makes her presence known._

 

_The little boy crawls down to his mother's stomach and lifts up her white tank top. He blows his own raspberries into his momma's belly button and then hits her flat abs._

 

“ _Alright my little monster hunter, leave our resident monster alone.”Dani says as she approaches the side of the bed that their son was on._

 

“ _Aw, but it was just getting fun mommy! I was beating the monster!” Michael whines and pouts at Dani._

 

_Quinn places her hands behind her head and grins widely at her wife. “ Yeah mommy, he was beating me. Why do you have to be such kill joy?”_

 

“ _Yeah, a killjoy!” Michael says mimicking his mother's position. “Momma, what's a kill joy?”_

 

_The proud parents laugh at the little boy's antics._

 

“ _It doesn't matter, Mikey. Now get off your duff and go get dressed for school.” Dani says as she ruffles the little boy's head._

 

_The five year old reluctantly gets out of bed and stomps off to his room as Dani watches on, playfully rolling her eyes. She chuckles and hands the steaming mug of coffee to the blond. Quinn takes the coffee out of her wife's hands and takes a big gulp out of it. It was black, just the way she loves it._

 

_She then leans over and gives Dani a brief good morning kiss._

 

“ _I have no idea why lying there, Agent Fabray. You should be getting your ass out of bed too. We're going to be late and Jesse will be pissed at us again.” Dani playfully orders her. Quinn kisses her again._

 

“ _Mm. We're always late and Jesse will always be pissed off about something. And the sky will always be blue.” Quinn tells her in between kisses._

 

“ _I'm aware of that. But Lopez just texted me and says that the case that we caught is a bad one and that we need to get our asses over here as soon as we drop the munchkin off.” Dani explains, halfheartedly resisting the senior agent's charms._

 

“ _Lopez is a cock blocker. She get over it if we're just a few minutes late.” Quinn says as she pulls Dani back into bed with her. She wraps her arms around the raven haired brunette and kisses her temple. The junior agent finally gives in and nuzzles her head into the senior agent's shoulder. They spend the next few minutes wrapped in each other's arms until they hear the cries of their son._

 

“ _Mommy! Momma! It's time to get up!” Mike yells out from his room...._

 

* * *

 

**6:30 am**

**Fabray residence**

 

The sounds of Jethro's barking causes the blond agent to stir from her slumber. As she blinks her eyes open, she sees Jethro standing on all four of his legs, standing defensively with his teeth barred in the direction of her best friend, who wearing a nicely tailored blue suit with a matching light blue dress shirt and her green cooking apron tied around him, was cowering away from him with a silver ladle.

 

“Come Jethro! I thought we had a deal.” the german shepard barks at him again. “ If you didn't act like one of Hades' hounds, at least until I got breakfast made, you got to have all the bacon that I dropped on the floor.”

 

Jethro barks menacingly a him again and takes another step forward.

 

“I kept up with my end of the deal! Why can't you keep up yours!” Jesse whines only to cause the dog to bark a little louder.

 

Quinn takes her hand and covers her mouth, muffling her laughter at the scene before her. She couldn't believe that Jesse, a man who has taken on some of the people on the FBI's and Mossad's most wanted list was afraid of a neutered german shepard. If she hadn't seen the extra grande cup of coffee in his hands, she would have let the amusing scene go on a little longer.

 

“Jethro, down boy!” Quinn yells sternly at him.

 

Her dog turns around and leaps on top of the couch and starts licking Quinn's face enthusiastically. She takes her hand and rubs the top of his head before telling him to get down. Jethro, with his tongue hanging out, runs around in a couple of circles chasing his tail, before taking a seat near the end of the couch before sitting down at the end of the couch closest to Quinn's hand.

 

She looks up and sees Jesse slowly approach the couch. The blond agent rolls her eyes at his antics and starts rubbing Jethro's ears. The german shepard looks up and growls lowly at the director, who takes a couple of steps backward in caution, but then Quinn pulls gently on the dog's collar to hold him back.

 

“Easy Jethro.” the senior agent scolds. The dog looks down and moves away from the couch area, allowing Jesse enough space to give his best friend her coffee.

 

With a shaky hand, the director hands Quinn her coffee. She nods at him in acknowledgement and takes a sip out of the cup.

 

“Mm. This actually doesn't taste like crap.” Quinn say appreciatively. “Congratulations St. James, you're growing up on me.”

 

“Only the best for you, Fabray.” Jesse grins smugly as the senior agent takes another long sip out of her cup.

 

“It seems like only yesterday, I was teaching you how to use that expensive expresso machine from Tuscany that you just had to have.” the blond agent says reflectively. “Oh yeah, that _was_ yesterday.”

 

“Ha, ha, ha, Agent Fabray. You're so funny.” Jesse says sarcastically. “Your team and I have really missed your special brand of dry humor around the office the last couple of months.”

 

“I'm sure with Lopez around, you couldn't have missed it that much.” she finishes taking another sip of coffee.

 

When she's done, the senior agent sets the cup down on the glass table and leans back into the cushions.

 

“ As much as I enjoy our early morning banter slash pissing contests, is there any particular reason why you're up at the ass crack of dawn and not at your house, slamming the sleep button on your alarm clock for the thirteenth time?”

 

Jesse scrunches his face and looks at the senior agent scandalized.

 

“Quinn Fabray, I am deeply offended and hurt that you would think that I wanted something just because I break away from my precious morning routine! It's your first day back at work since Dani. Maybe I wanted to be the first to wish you good luck.”

 

The senior agent places on of her legs on top of the other.

 

“You cooked me breakfast.” she points out causally.

 

“So what? It's on behalf of myself and the members of your devoted teammates who wanted to wish you well on the first day back.” Jesse easily explains, shrugging off the blond's observation.

 

Quinn leans forward and picks up the cup, taking another sip out of the disposable mug. When she's done, she place it in her hand and looks over at her best friend.

 

“ The last time you cooked me breakfast, it was to tell me that you were leaving NCIS for the joint task force in Paris.” she points out again. “So let me ask you again, what have you _done_ to my team while I was away?”

 

“Nothing, the team is fine and everyone on it are managing just fine considering the circumstances.” Jesse explains defensively. “But-”

 

“Should have know that a but would be thrown in somewhere” Quinn mutters, interrupting the director, who narrows his eyes at her in return.

 

“But, I do want to catch you up to speed with what's been happening with your team, since I became interim team leader. There is also something I need to tell you and I'd rather do that with bacon involved, just in case.” He walks over to the senior agent and pulls her up with one arm.

 

“Just in case what Jesse? What is going on?” Quinn asks as she was being rushed to the kitchen island.

 

When they enter the kitchen, she sees the island filled with plates and plates of food. There was a huge platter of scrambled eggs. A saucer of biscuits with a couple of stacks of waffles and pancakes respectively. Two plates filled with bacon and sausage, and a pint of freshly squeezed orange juice and a plate of blueberry muffins with crumble on them. The senior agent's eyes widen at the feast.

 

“St. James! When the hell did you have time to do all of this? And still have enough time to get dressed in the morning?” Quinn asks astonished.

 

Jesse gives her a tentative smile. “Let's just say that it is amazing what one can do with three cups of coffee with extra expresso shots and four and a half hour of sleep.” He pushes her towards the part of the island where the plates were next to waffles. “But now, we feast my friend!”

 

They grab their plates and the senior agent fills half of her plate with eggs and the other half with bacon and a muffin, if she were still able to eat afterwards. Jesse, meanwhile, filled his plate with waffles, a couple pieces of bacon and some orange juice.

 

The agents spend the first few minutes in silence. Quinn was surprised at the fact that his smorgasbord tasted amazing and Jesse had finally took her advice and learned how to cook without giving anyone food poisoning. She remembers the last time the new director attempted to cook and how disastrously that had ended. He was throwing a dinner party in honor of their old boss, Agent Sylvester's retirement. He didn't cook the main course all the way through and as a result, half of the party guests ended up with food poisoning the next day. She spent the next week and a half fielding angry phone calls from different department leaders about the event and managed to talk a couple of people out of suing.

 

A few minutes later, Quinn puts her fork down and pushes her plate away, that still had half of her eggs and bacon leftover.

 

“I've got to give you credit St.James, this meal was amazing.” the senior agent complements her best friend.

 

“Thanks.” Jesse says as he uses his fork to cut through the last part of his pancakes.

 

“It almost makes me dread whatever news you have to tell me from headquarters.” the blond agent says as she puts her hands underneath her chin. She watches Jesse stop his cutting and places it on the table.He looks at her and knows that there is no way that he was going to be able to stall her any longer. So he takes a swallow of his orange juice and place the glass back on the table.

 

“Do you want me to update you on the team first or deliver the news from my bosses first?” Jesse asks placing his hands on the table.

 

“Team first. Maybe hearing about them will improve my mood before I hear what your bosses have to say.” she says smirking lightly at her friend.

 

“Alright then.” Jesse says, placing his hands on the table. “The case load for the team hasn't been that bad considering everything else that's happened. The only major case that we've had involved someone that you and I put away ten years ago.”

 

“Who's that?” the senior agent asks curiously.

 

“ Kyle Boone.” he tells her and watches as the blond agent hiss. Boone was a serial killer that they had put away, who collected his victim's tongues for trophies. The last thing Quinn had heard of him, he was siting on death row awaiting execution.

 

“Local authorities decided that it would be a good idea to release the bastard days before his execution.”

 

The senior agent's eyes narrow at the revelation. “Why in the hell would they do that?”

 

“Because he promised the cops that he would lead them to where the victim's bodies were located.”

 

Quinn nods her head, still thinking that it was a stupid idea on the local police's part to release him.

 

“ Unfortunately, there was a copycat running around replicating Boone's crimes.” he finishes.

 

“That's horrible. But doesn't surprise me. The nut job 'admirers' come out right before their hero is set to die.” the senior agent says leaning back in the chair.

 

“It gets better. Because we were two agents down, I requested to have another agent brought in to help us out on the case. Turns out that said agent is Puckerman's ex girlfriend.” Jesse says with a smirk on his face.

 

Quinn chuckles a bit, imagining how pissed off Puckerman must have been to find out that he would be working with her again. “Agent Paula Cassidy I presume.”

 

“Yes! Her! Evans, Lopez and surprisingly Tina joined in rubbing Puckerman about Cassidy.”

 

“And I can't believe I missed that sideshow.” the senior agent says regrettably.

 

“Wish I could say that case was all fun and games at Puck's expense, but it wasn't. Shortly after Agent Cassidy joined us, we ended up finding a scrapbook belonging to Boone.” he says somberly. “ He was apparently taking pictures of his victims and his mementos. His attorney and biographer were hiding them for him for the last ten years.”

 

The director hesitates for a moment before going on.

 

“ He asked about you. Boone still held a grudge against you. I told him that you were taking a temporary leave of absence and he said that it was too bad.” his hands clutch into fists thinking about how his conversation with the killer still made him angry. “ He wanted to have the pleasure of watching you kill him with your gun and ruining your career.”

 

“What the hell is wrong with psychopaths wanting me to shot something with my gun.” the senior agent tries joking to make her best friend feel better.

 

“If there's any consolation, I told him that he was a pathetic waste of space and that I couldn't wait to watch his execution in thirty-six hours.”Jesse adds with a chuckle.

 

“Okay Jesse. Could you cliff notes the rest of the investigation for me?” she asks impatiently.

 

“Of course. To make a long story short, Agent Cassidy was taken captive by Boone's biographer, Briggs, who turned out to be a loser with a dishonorable discharge and a domestic violence conviction. O'Neil, the attorney turned out to be the copycat killer. He tried to kill Cassidy, but Puckerman, Lopez and Evans got there in enough time to shoot the bastard dead.” Jesse explains. “You should have seen Boone's face when he found out that Agent Cassidy would not be apart of his scrapbook after all. Priceless. It was a very pleasant image to have of him as I watched him be executed by old sparky. In the first row.”

 

Quinn chuckles at her friend's antics. “Like I said, I wish I would have been there for all of it.”

 

“We all did.” Jesse says sincerely “Especially me, since I got stuck filling out your paperwork and my own assessment as Director. Which by the way, I am still filling out.”

 

The curly haired director picks up his fork and takes one last bite into his lukewarm pancakes. He puts the fork down and takes another sip out of his juice.

 

“Well, you did a great job considering temporary agent-in- charge St. James.” Quinn says, holding up her cup of coffee and toasting to her best friend.

 

“Did you have any doubt that I wouldn't?” Jesse jokes for a moment before he looks down worriedly.

 

“And now for my bosses news, that isn't as thrilling as the Kyle Boone case.” The blond agent nods for him to continue.

 

“As you obviously know, it's been two months since Agent McKenzie's untimely death” Jesse starts carefully. “My bosses, they are very sympathetic to your and your unit's plight. They know that right now, the team's morale is at the lowest that it's ever been.”

 

He looks over to his best friend for a reaction, only to find that she has a neutral expression on her face.

 

“But at the same time, even with you coming back, you guys are still down one field agent.”

 

“My team's worked efficiently before with less members than we have now. I don't see how that would any impact on how we work now.” she says defensively, feeling the need to defend her team.

 

“And I totally understand that. Hell, I witnessed that when I was subbing for you. The team would function just fine with you and three other agents. Unfortunately, my bosses don't see it like that. They want me to fill Dani's spot and they want me to fill it immediately.”

 

The senior agent narrows her eyes at her friend while shaking her head.

 

“We can't do that. They're not ready yet, it's too soon.” she argues.  _ If I were being honest, I'm not ready to see Dani's desk be filled yet. _

 

Jesse looks at his agent sternly, as all pretenses of friendship disappear from his expression.

 

“It's already been done.” Jesse says with a hint of finality. “I've picked out her replacement out of a select pool of new transfers to the agency. I made sure to pick the candidate with the most experience, so that you wouldn't have to spend too much time training them and they could start right away.”

 

“I can't believe this.” Quinn says angrily as she abruptly stands up from the grey chair. “Is this what this whole bullshit breakfast buffet was about? Softening me up so that you can read the riot act from  _ your  _ bosses! That's classy Jesse, really classy!” She picks up her plate and walks over to the kitchen sink, turns the water on and then haphazardly tossing the plate in it.

 

“That is not what this is for, Fabray and you know it. I would never do something like that to you.” Jesse defends himself adamantly. “But I also didn't want to read you the riot act, as you call it, in front of your team in the bullpen as if I was undermining your position. I wanted you to have a heads up and know what was going on in advance.”

 

Quinn cleans off her dishes and doesn't turn around to face him, even though she knows that he has a point. She certainly wasn't going to admit that she was thankful that he had given her a heads up about the new hire ahead of time.

 

“Who is it?” the senior agent asks as she turns the water off. “Who's the new hire?”

 

Jesse looks down and takes his left pinky finger, puts it in his mouth and starts to chew on the nail.

 

“Officer Rachel Berry. Former liaison for the CIA.” Jesse whispers quietly. “And Mossad.”

 

The senior agent lets her dishes drop in the sink and abruptly turns around to face the director. She levels a death glare in his direction that would even make Agent Sylvester flinch. He's tempted to get up from the table and out of the house as quickly as his feet would allow, head over to the Naval Yard and barricade himself in his office until Quinn cools off.

 

“I'm sorry _director_.” the blond agent snaps. “ I think I misheard you. Did you mean my neighbor, Rachel?”

 

Sitting up straighter in his chair, the director swallows the fear that he has of his friend and stares directly into her eyes. “Yes, I did.”

 

“The Rachel Berry who two months prior was a possible accomplice for a rouge spy turned terrorist? The same Rachel Berry who is on a very short leash with Mossad and her megalomanic father, whose not very fond of NCIS right now! The Rachel Berry who two-thirds of my team will try to shoot as soon as she walks through the bullpen doors! That Rachel Berry!” Quinn screams at him.

 

Jesse stands up and slams his hands on the table and glares at his best friend.

 

“Yes! Yes! Yes! Quinn! That Rachel Berry!” he shouts right back as his own anger and frustration builds because his friend can't or won't see the position his bosses have placed him in.

 

“What the hell were you thinking Jesse! Are you trying to rip my team apart! Because if you are just tell me right now so I won't be blindsided by it later!” Quinn says as her bare feet stomp away from the kitchen. Jesse steps around her chair and follows right behind her.

 

“I was thinking that she is a damn fine agent, whose potential was wasted while working under her father!”

 

Jesse walks over to the front door and grabs his black leather briefcase. He hastily rips open the zipper and takes out Rachel's employee files. He drops the briefcase on the floor and heads into the living room where the Quinn is stewing on the couch. When Jethro approaches him, he swats the dog away from him and plops down on the couch next to his best friend.

 

“Look Quinn, at least look at this, but don't ask me where I got it from. Look at her file and honestly tell me that she's not good enough to be on your team.” Jesse insists, shoving the thick file into the blond agent's lap.

 

Quinn opens up the files and is met with a black and white picture of a twenty-two year old Rachel Berry. The former liaison's bangs were noticeably absent. She flips the picture over and starts reading the liaison's extensive file.

 

“Let's see. She was involved with the CIA's internship program from 2002 to 2005.” Quinn reads from the file and skims through a letter of recommendation from one of her former superior officers. “Immediately after graduating from NYU, Rachel went to the CIA's training school, where she excelled in hand to hand combat and showed exemplary potential as a marksman.”

 

“When she completed her training there, she worked in the DC offices for a year before being recruited into a joint task force with Mossad in 2007. She initially worked as a control officer in a special operations unit called Kidon. And after infiltrating a Hamas cell in Ramallah, she was promoted to liaison” Quinn stops reading for a moment and looks at her friend impressed with the new agent's resume.

 

“What happened in Ramallah?” Quinn asks inquisitively. Jesse looks down at the table.

 

“That is something that you're going to have ask her. It's not my place to say.” Jesse says somberly as he suddenly recalls what Rachel had told him when they were in Cairo.

 

Quinn nods, letting it go for now and goes back to reading the folder. Halfway through the former Mossad liaison's file, she comes across ten to twenty pages that have the brunette's basic information and black bars on everything else. She knew what that meant, classified information.

 

After a while, Quinn closes the folder and places it on the coffee able. The senior agent had to admit that Rachel's resume had been far more impressive than she had initially thought it would be. If the blond was being honest, she had underestimated the brunette's abilities.

 

But as impressive as Rachel's resume had been, she didn't think the brunette would fit with the team. There was too much bad blood between the team and Rachel that she honestly didn't think was going to be resolved anytime soon.

 

“Well?” Jesse asks impatiently. “What you say? Do you think Rachel would make a fine edition to your team? Or would she make an excellent edition to your team?”

 

“Her resume is very impressive.” Quinn says as she turns and leans into the left arm of the couch. “Hell, Berry is probably more qualified for my job than she would be for a probationary field agent.”

 

“I thought so too.” Jesse agrees, while giving her a smug grin thinking that he has won the senior agent over.

 

“And with that said, the answer is still no.” Quinn says. She turns her feet back in the direction of the table and stands up. “I'm sure she'll do fine work on another agent's team. Find someone else for us.”

 

The smile on the director's face drops and he watches a bit stunned as his best friend walk away from him and down the hall. He doesn't get up until he hears the sound of the spare bedroom door closing.

 

 

The director takes a deep breath and marches over to the door of the spare bedroom. He was determine to reason with his stubborn best friend and make her see that this new addition to her team will be good for her and everyone else in the long run.

 

Once he gets in front of the door, he places his head on the door.

 

“There is no one else Agent Fabray. At least not anyone with her kind of credentials.” Jesse says loudly into the door. “Just give her a chance, at least a year. If it doesn't work out then I can have her transferred to another team.”

 

He doesn't hear anything on the other side of the door for a while, with the exception of the opening and closing of the dresser drawer and closets. And the sounds of the senior agent stomping around in the room.

 

“If you're worried about the team dynamics, don't. They're more resilient than you are giving them credit for. There may be a bit of tension at first considering the circumstances and they may treat her ten times worse then they treat each other. But eventually, they'll get over it and accept her. This won't break up your team.” Jesse tries reasoning with her.

 

The door opens, causing Jesse to suddenly jump away from it. Quinn then places her head in the crack of the door and looks at the director with an unreadable expression.

 

“Why are you pushing this so hard, Jesse? What spell does Berry have over you that you're her greatest champion all of a sudden? Is it because she saved your ass from being smoked in Cairo?” the senior agent asks him curiously. She wanted to know why he was pushing so hard for Berry to be on her team.

 

There were other people in the agency who could use Rachel's expertise more than her team would. From the three times she had seen Rachel since her impromptu visit after Dani's funeral, and she had liked the brunette well enough. But what would she do with the former liaison on her team that some other team leader couldn't.

 

“No, it's nothing like that. I repaid my debt to Rachel a couple of years ago.” Jesse says reflectively. “But that's not the reason why.”

 

“Then what is? Why do you want Rachel on my team so badly?” Quinn asks exasperated.

 

Jesse looks down for a moment and then looks at his friend earnestly. _Because you both need each other, whether you know it or not, to get over what Brody did to the both of you._

 

“Because, I want Rachel to train under one of the best agents in the agency. Who are we kidding, one of the best agents that I've ever had the privilege to work with and under.” he says instead.

 

“ In Mossad, Rachel never really had the opportunity to thrive as an agent in the field because her father for some reason, never trusted her. He seconded guessed her decisions, made sure that she got the worst assignments that clearly undermined her skills as an operative. Treated her like a child and scolded her in front of his other agents. And I always believed that she deserved better than that for all the hard work and sacrifice she puts into the job. You could _give_ her better and unlock all of the potential that her father tried so hard to stifle and belittle. “ the director says with conviction. “Hell, you turned Puckerman, a punk drug unit cop from Baltimore with attitude, into an exemplary second in command junior agent. Imagine all that you could teach Rachel to be everything that she can be and so much more.”

 

Quinn looks down and closes the bottom two buttons of her dark blue blouse, silently cursing Jesse and his eloquence. She was starting to see Jesse's side of things and realized that he may have a point. Rachel did have an impressive resume and she could even see her being offered her own team if she stuck around the agency long enough. After all that Rachel had done for her, the least she could do is give the former liaison a chance on her team.

 

The senior agent sighs and then closes the bedroom door. Jesse closes his eyes and looks down, thinking that he had failed to sell Rachel to his best friend. Now he was going to have to deliver the bad news to the former liaison on what's supposed to be her first day on the job.

 

As he was coming up with a game plan on how to tell Rachel the bad news about her reassignment, the spare bedroom door opens and the senior agent marches out of the room, dressed in her black work slacks, leather jacket and Sig sitting comfortably on her left hip, and on the island where she left her disposable coffee cup. She picks up the cup and lifts off the lid and pours a fresh batch of coffee into it. Then the blond agent takes a hand and flattens the right side of her freshly done short hair. The senior agent then turns and glances at her best friend.

 

“When's her first day?” Quinn asks neutrally.

 

Jesse smiles widely at his friend, as he finally walks away from the room and into the kitchen where the blond is. “She's coming in today, in a couple of hours.”

 

The senior agent sarcastically rolls her eyes at him. “Wow, great job with the notice there Jesse. You could have at least had her wait until Wednesday, when I've acclimated myself back into the madness that is our bullpen again.”

 

“What can I say, she was bored. I tried to get her to wait until next Monday, to give you and the rest of the team time to settle in, but she insisted that she start this week.” Jesse says shrugging. “Guess her Leroy and Beth drove her crazy enough to want to work again.”

 

Quinn chuckles at her best friend.

 

“Probably. It must be nice though, to have people to come home to and drive you crazy.” Quinn says wistfully, as she remembered her dream from this morning.

 

Jesse notices that look immediately and tries to remedy it quickly. He figured the senior agent doesn't need to be down before she started back with work again. It was going to be hard enough as it is, having to look at Dani's empty desk and be reminded of it constantly.

 

He sees Jethro chewing on something in the living room and sees it as the perfect opportunity to get the senior agent to smile. He walks over to the dog and points in his direction.

 

“Aw, the demon spawn didn't drive you crazy enough while you were on leave?” Jesse says, only to have the german shepard bar his teeth at him and growls lowly.

 

“It's a different kind of crazy.” Quinn says laughing as she walks up to her beloved dog. She rubs the top of his head a little, instantly calming the canine down.

 

“You be good and stay out of trouble.” she says lovingly to the pup, leaning down and kissing the dog's head.

 

Jesse and Quinn make their way out of the living room and walk down the remainder of the main hallway, to the front door. She turns around and opens up the cover of a white keypad, punching in a few numbers. A month ago, Quinn gave in to Jesse's pushy suggestion and had an alarm system set up for the house. He was concerned about her living alone, in spite of her assuring him that he could take care of herself.

 

Once the alarm began to beep, the two NCIS operatives walk out of the door, with Jesse walking over to his black Range Rover and Quinn over to her blue Dodge charger. They exchanged quick goodbyes with Jesse promising to check up on her at lunch, if her team hadn't caught a case.

 

As Quinn slammed the door of her car and waited for Jesse to pull out of her car port, she thought about the team.She had a feeling that Sam and Puck would adjust to the new field agent alright. She was sure once they've adjusted to Rachel being there on a daily basis, that they would welcome the former Mossad liaison with open arms.

 

Santana, on the other hand, would be the problem agent. The junior agent was not going to like having Berry there, replacing her partner and would most likely do anything to get the other brunette fired. She just had to figure out a way to keep the peace in the bullpen or at least not have the two agents at each other throats.

 

The blond agent started the car and backed out of her driveway, with one thought on her mind.

 

_How am I going to handle having Berry at work after everything we've been through._

 

 

* * *

 

**8:30 am**

**Bullpen**

 

 

As the elevator doors open, Rachel hesitatingly steps out of it in her black and red Jimmy Choo heels. Dressed in a light brown, sleeveless blouse and black dress pants that let out a little on the bottom. Strapped on her right shoulder was a black, medium sized duffle bag with her combat boots, an extra blouse, first aid kit and her lunch neatly tucked away inside. It was her first day at a new agency and the brunette wanted to make sure that she was prepared for anything and everything that could go wrong today. Even though Jesse told her that they probably wouldn't be called out on a case today, Rachel still wanted to be ready just in case they were.

 

When Jesse had called her a few weeks ago and asked her if she still wanted to transfer to NCIS, she had been surprised that the director still wanted her in his agency. After all the trouble she had given him and his team of agents, the brunette thought that he would have run her resume through the shredder. Rachel never expected to get the job and she was happy that Jesse was able to overlook her recent past with the team and offer her the position, so she told him yes without thinking.

 

Had she known that he would assign her to Agent Fabray's team, however, she would have reconsidered his offer.

 

It wasn't that she didn't like her new neighbor or her teammates. With the exception of Santana, the people that she had the opportunity seemed great. And other different circumstances, she could see herself being good friends with Sam and Puck. But after everything that has happened, she couldn't imagine that any of them would be happy to see her, especially the special-agent-in charge.

 

The former liaison had minimal contact with her new boss since she unexpectedly dropped by her house with Beth two months ago. On her morning jog, Rachel was able to catch Quinn and Jethro as they were leaving for Virginia Beach for the next few weeks. The blond seemed to be sleeping better and in better spirits in general since she last talk to the agent. Before the blond left, Rachel agreed to get her mail for her while the senior agent was gone and wished her well on her trip.

 

The second time she had seen the blond was last week, when the senior agent made her return to the city. She wasn't home at the time, so her father, Leroy, had answered the door and invited the senior agent inside. By the time she had gotten back from her meeting with Jesse, her father was in the middle of telling the senior agent about the time she sent a girl, who Rachel saw as a threat to her position as president of her high school's drama club, to an inactive crack house. The flustered brunette immediately pulled the senior agent up by her arm, handed her five weeks worth of mail and told the blond she would see her later. Leroy stood by the door and told her to come back anytime, that he would be there for the next couple of months if she wanted to hear more embarrassing stories about the brunette's childhood. She was thankful that the senior agent had shrugged noncommittally at her father's offer. For the next week, Leroy ribbed her about how cute he thought the senior agent was and winking in her direction in the process.

 

The third time she saw Quinn was yesterday afternoon, only the blond had not seen her. Rachel was on her way back from the Hummel's house after having an afternoon brunch with her neighbor, Kurt. She ended up walking in the direction of the senior agent's house and figured that she would just come by to say hello. When she arrived at the blond's house, Rachel found Quinn bent over in short black shorts and a USMC hoodie, washing her precious Charger, again. She noticed that even when she was washing her car, the blond always managed to have serious expression on her face. Rachel stood there for the next ten minutes, watching as the blond meticulously washed, rinsed and wax her car almost hypnotically.

 

 

Until she felt the hazel eyes of the blond, that looked more green then brown today, started at her curiously, with a faint smile. The brunette turned around and quickly made her way back to her house. Rachel spent the rest of the day and well into the night, trying to figure out why she was so interested in figuring out the Agent Fabray.

 

Now that the blond was going to be her new boss, she was sure that curiosity would grow more.

 

When the brunette finally made her way to the entrance of the bullpen for Quinn's team, she stops and takes a deep breath to calm her nerves. It felt like her first day in high school all over again. At least this time, she knew that no one would slushy her like they had back then. Shaking away her jitters, Rachel walks into the team's bullpen, better prepared for what may come.

 

When the former liaison walks in, she sees Sam at his desk, who had his tweed jacket on his chair and a wearing Darth Vader tie with his white button down shirt, typing away on his computer while looking across the room disgusted. She looks over to where he is looking at and she scrunches her face in almost the same manner that he had.

 

Standing behind his messy desk, Puck, who had his bluish grey shirt out of his grey dress pants, his red tie undone and a handful of shaving cream in his hand. In his other hand, held his four blade razor.

 

_That is one of the most disgusting and unsanitary things that I have ever seen. I've lived in a barrack with male agents who were cleaner than Agent Puckerman._ Rachel thought to herself as she stepped a couple of inches closer to the boys.

 

“I hate fucking Mondays.” he says as he shaves the invisible stubble off of his left cheek. “ Fat Al's All-You-Can-Eat burrito shack. More like Fat Al's bacteria shack.”

 

Puck pats his stomach and then sets the razor down, taking the balled up paper towel sitting on his desk and uses it to wipe his hands. He buttons up the rest of his shirt, starting from the middle. When he's done, the junior agent picks up the can of shaving cream and puts a dime size amount of the white cream into his hand. He picks up his razor again and shaves a little of the right side of his face, cutting himself in the process.

 

 

“Oh come on!” he says as he slams the razor down on the desk. “See! I knew I shouldn't have come into work today. Fabray sees me like this and-”

 

“She'll probably be as horrified as I am right now Agent Puckerman.” Rachel interrupts with a smile. She watches as the two men's heads spin in her direction and look on at her, stunned. “Are you working undercover as a hobo?”

 

The junior agent and his probie surprise the former liaison with their smiles. The men move from their perspective desks and wrap Rachel up in a bone crushing hug. They stand there for a couple of minutes before Sam pulls away and takes a couple of steps away from the brunette. While Puck moves out of the hug and leaves his left arm around her shoulder.

 

“Negatory my Berry babe.” Puck chuckles, happy to see his fellow jew back in the bullpen. He moves them over a few steps before looking down at her with his eyebrows scrunched up. “Uh, not that I'm not happy to see you Berry, but , um what exactly do you think you're doing here?”

 

Rachel takes his arm and moves it away from her shoulder. “Um....waiting.”

 

“For what?” he asks still not getting why the liaison is here.

 

“To start work.” Rachel says shrugging. She reaches into her duffle bag and pulls out a dark green folder. She hands it over to the junior agent, who looks at the papers and then smiles.

 

“No way! You've got to be kidding me!” Puck says excitedly, turning around and picking up the new agent. “ You're one of us now!'

 

“Really?” Sam asks, taking the folder out of his hands to see for himself. He looks at the transfer paperwork and it confirms that Rachel is indeed an official NCIS agent. He closes the folder and hands it back to Rachel, smiling softly at her. “Congratulations Rachel.”

 

“Thank you Sam and Puck.” she says humbly. “But where are Agents Fabray and Lopez? And why is everyone coming in to work so late?”

 

“The boss is taking a quick nap on the Director's couch. She should be down in a few minutes.” Sam tells her.

 

“And Lopez was having some car trouble. Said she'll be here in a few minutes.” Puck fills in. “Then again, that was twenty minutes ago. As for you other question, it's only 0830, we're actually thirty minutes early. Work doesn't start until 0900.”

 

Walking over to the empty desk across the way from Puck's, Rachel moves over to the chair to sit down.

 

“Really? Isn't that rather late?” she asks, as she pulls out the chair. “At Mossad, we usually start at around 0500.”

 

“Wow. I could never do those hours.” Puck says astonished. “No wonder you wanted a transfer.”

 

Rachel laughs at her new teammate and begins to sit down but is stopped by Puck before she does.

 

“Don't sit there Berry!” he tells her urgently. She looks over at him with a questioning gaze. “That was McKenzie's desk. You understand right?”

 

Rachel nods and scoots the chair back into the table. She walks back over to the middle of the room.

 

Puck's eyes widen and a mischievous grin appears on his face as he looks at Santana's unoccupied desk.

 

“Why don't you come sit over here instead, right next to me over in this desk.”

 

He takes Rachel by her right arm and takes her duffle bag into his hand. He leads her over to Lopez's desks and pulls out the chair for the brunette. He sets the bag on her side and watches as she sits down and gets comfortable.

 

“ That's very kind of you Agent Puckerman.” Rachel says thankfully. His full lips grin impishly at the new agent.

 

“No thanks needed at all Berry.” he shrugs off, as he moves over and sits down at his own desk. “ Anything that I can do to help.”

 

 

* * *

 

**9:00 am**

**Bullpen**

 

Agent Lopez walks into the bullpen, with a big brown stain on her white blouse, tying her dark brown hair up into a pony tail. The heels of her jet black boots clicked along with her movements as she uses the jacket, that she had to use in order to sit inside of the cab, to cover up the stain and hopefully wrapping up her morning from hell.

 

She nearly called into work sick after she discovered her car, which was only a couple of years old, wouldn't start.But then she remembered that her curly headed menace would have her head if she didn't turn in her paperwork on their latest train wreck of a case into him by the end of the day The junior agent then calls the dealership, only to find out that her car was on a list of vehicles that were recently recalled because of a defect in the transmission, so she would have to call them to come pick up the car and get a new one. But until then, she was stuck hailing cabs, waiting for buses and what really made her cringe, riding to and from work with Puckerman, who lived on the floor below hers.

 

She calls the taxi company to arrange for a cab to pick her up, only to be told that they were all on runs and that the nearest one would get to her in fifteen minutes. So she sat outside of her building and waited as fifteen minutes turns into twenty minutes, and twenty minutes turns into forty-five minutes. By the time the taxi pulls up, Santana is forced to get into the direst cab that she's ever seen in all of her years in DC. She's seen cleaner cabs in her hometown of Westchester adjacent than the one that she was getting into. But the junior agent swallows her pride and what was left of her dignity, placed her expensive Armani jacket onto the seat and spent the next twenty minutes trying not to throw up her dinner from last night, either from the smell in the cab, his constant come ons and yellow stained tooth grin.

 

As soon as they got to the Naval Yard, Santana literally threw the money back to the cabby, slammed the door, and made a run for the bullpen. It was the boss' first day back in command and she wanted to make sure that she was not the first person the senior agent would chew out today. The bet that she has going with Evan's depends on it.

 

Unfortunately, before she got to the elevator, Santana slammed into a probationary agent from another team. She thought his name was Gibbons or Robins. It didn't really matter to her at the time because as soon as the coffee Gibbons/Robins was holding tipped out of the cup and onto her shirt, all she saw was red. She stood there for a few seconds, with her eyes closed and stock still before she regained her composure. But when the junior agent opened her eyes, the young probie was nowhere to be found. She narrowed her eyes and stalked dangerously over to the elevator, instantly parting areas where there were crowds of agents.

 

The junior agent couldn't wait to get to her desk and change out of her expensive, now ruined blouse and into her spare shirt that didn't stick to her skin. She had hoped that the boss would want to take it easy and let them catch up on their paperwork on her first day back. _But who am I kidding. This is L.Quinn Fabray that we're talking about. Of course we're going to have a case and of course today is going to suck more than this morning._ Her final thought before she enters the bullpen is that she could not wait for the delicious, steaming hot carmel macchatio that awaited her on her desk from Puckerman, as it was every morning for the last year and a half since he lost a Superbowl bet and couldn't pay his debt.

 

As she stalks into the entrance of their bullpen, Santana feels a throbbing in her head. It causes her to stop where she is, close her eyes for the third time this morning and rub her temples. She takes a deep breath in. She opens her brown eyes, darts them quickly around the room to figure out what didn't belong. When her eyes land on her desk, to see the Mossad liaison sitting casually in _her_ desk drinking _her_ carmel macchiato, the junior agent feels the veins in her head begin to throb.

 

_Berry! What the hell is that troll doing here? And in my desk!_

 

She looks over at Puckerman to see him looking directly at her, with a shit eating grin on his face.

 

_I am going to kill that son of a bitch! He picked the wrong day to cross this agent!_

 

As she watched Berry ramble on to Puckerman, who just sat there and watched her with his arms crossed and a smug look on his face. She slams her jacket down on her desk, hard, causing the liaison to jump a little.

 

“What the hell are you doing here Berry?” Santana asks angrily with her eyes narrowed at the liaison.

 

“Well, good morning to you too Agent Lopez. What's wrong? Did you wake up on the wrong side of someone else's bed this morning.” Rachel challenges, with a glare of her own. She hers Puckerman snort in laughter and Evans trying to cover up his own laughs. She glares at the mohawked agent, who breaks out into full laughter.

 

She softens her glare and gives the brunette liaison a patronizing smile.

 

“Actually, no I haven't Berry.” Santana says with a faux pleasantness. “Not that it's any of your business anyway. But at least I know that the person that I'm sleeping with won't appear on the CIA or Mossad's most wanted list, you know, if they _weren't_ dead.” The junior agent watches Berry's gaze darken and she leans forward to stand up. She looks over to

 

“That's neither here nor there at moment. You still haven't answered my question, so I am going to say it once again, slowly, and maybe you'll understand it. What.The.Hell.Are.You.Doing.Here?” Santana asks impatiently. “More specifically, what the hell are you doing in _my_ desk, drinking _my_ hot macchiato!”

 

Rachel pushes the chair out of the desk, stands up and lifts the cup of coffee off the table. She looks over the angry junior agent and realizes that the other brunette has no clue what is going on. The new agent then gives the junior agent a cheeky smile.

 

“Fabray really didn't tell you, did she?” Rachel asks as she walks away from the desk. The junior agent then turns around to face her.

 

“Hell no. I just got here, would you mind filling me in oh short one?”

 

“This is going to be good.” Rachel hears Puck mutter to himself, grinning.

 

The new agent extends her hand out to the junior agent and places the disposable mug back on the desk.

“Hello, my name is Special Agent Rachel Berry and I am the new probationary agent for the MRT at Naval Crime Investigative Services or NCIS.” the new agent says cheerfully. “ And I apologize for the coffee Agent Lopez, it was a misunderstanding that won't happen again. The cup is still half full if you'd still like to partake in your daily morning caffeinated beverage.”

 

Santana's eyes widen and she feels her head spinning, not believing what she was hearing. She feels like she is going to barf at the news and she can't come up with a witty retort. Instead, she starts shaking her head and moving it side to side.

 

“No, no, no, no! Hell no!” Santana says frantically. “There is no way _you_ are working _here_. Not after everything you've done!” the distressed agent turns to her colleague and points to her. “Puckerman, if this is your way of fucking with me and not some horrible nightmare that I am destined to wake up from, please tell me now! You win!”

 

“Sorry Satan. Berry's transfer papers are legit, they were signed by the boss and the Director. She's with us now.” Puck says, satisfied at how well the other junior agent was taking this.

 

Santana's brown eyes look at the blond probie pleadingly, that Rachel almost felt sorry for the junior agent, only to receive a shrug from him in return.

 

“He's right Lopez. Berry's an official member of this team.” he says and then goes back to typing on his computer.

 

“Damn it!” Santana shouts slamming her hand down on the desk hard, hurting her hand. She holds it close to her chest and puts the knuckle of her pointer finger in her mouth“Shit! Could my day get any worse than this?”

 

“Fraid not Lopez. The day's only just begun.” the team over to the entrance of the bullpen to see Agent Fabray walk through, with her black leather messenger bag on her shoulder, heading directly to her desk. She sets her bag down and turns on her lamp and computer.

 

When she gets in, the senior agent is greeted to a round of 'Welcome back, bosses' from Sam and Puck. While Santana walks over to her boss' desk, pushing past Berry in the process, and stands in front of the desk.

 

“First of all, don't ever go on vacation again boss. And I know he's you're best friend and everything, but he was a tyrant and a monster wrapped up into an overly gelled, Director Schuester's first husband,like prototype.” Santana says frankly. “ I'd rather deal with you being hard ass than his candy ass any day.”

 

“Thank you Lopez, how touching.” Quinn says sarcastically. “I'll try to remember that next time.”

 

“Yeah, whatever.” the junior agent says dismissively. “Secondly, is it true that the smurf over there, is going to be working with us from now on, on a more permanent basis?”

 

The senior agent looks over Lopez's shoulder and sees Rachel standing behind her, with a duffle bag in hand. Their eyes lock onto one another for a moment ,before the senior agent bends her head down, gets up from her desk and walks over to her.

 

Santana turns away from the boss' empty desk, crosses her arms and looks over at Berry with a smirk. _I knew this was all a big mistake, there was no way in hell Fabray would let her on their team._

 

Quinn stands in front the new agent, giving her the once over. Even though she was still not completely sold on the idea of Rachel being on this team, she's come to accept that there was nothing that she could do about it. She notices that Rachel is only able to hold eye contact with her for only a couple of seconds at a time before she nervously looks down at her bag.

 

“Rachel.” Quinn says formally, receiving a nod in return. “What are you doing here?”

 

“Looking forward to being a member of your team.” Rachel says somewhat confidentially and then gulping at the end.

 

“Is that so?” the senior agent says sternly, secretly trying to give the new probie a hard time.

 

The brunette nods nervously in return. At the same time, the phone rings and Quinn focuses her gaze on Sam, who had stop typing and started watching the scene before him. He looks away and answers the phone.

 

“Unless, you have any reservations, Agent Fabray?” the new agent says nervously.

 

The blond's gaze narrows. “ I do, Berry, believe me I do.”

 

The senior agent looks at the brunette one more time before turning away from her and walking back over to her desk. She then pulls out a couple of folders and opens the one that is on the top.

 

“Pack your trash.” the senior agent says dismissively and then going back to the files on her desk

 

Rachel's eyes begin to water and her expression crushed as she suddenly feels like an idiot for thinking that Agent Fabray would actually give her a chance to be on her team. She swallows the lump in her throat and has just enough strength to look the senior agent in the eyes one last time.

 

“Not a problem. I'm still waiting on my car and other stuff from New York to ship, so I guess that's a better use of my time. But thank you, for everything Agent Fabray.” Rachel says with restraint. She then turns to Sam and Puck. “It was nice seeing you two again. You as well Agent Lopez.”

 

The new agent picks up her duffle bag and makes her way to the elevator. Quinn then looks up from her paperwork to find Rachel gone, Sam and Puck looking at each other with a mixture of fear and confusion. And Santana, who was leaning back on her desk, was laughing hysterically at the new hire's antics.

 

The senior agent then gets up, but not before shooting a glare in Santana's direction which causes her laughter to cease, and chases after the new hire. The blond gets there in just enough time before the elevator doors close. She holds one of the silver doors open and to find Rachel on the brink of tears. Quinn then presses the emergency button on the elevator and the watches the led lights flicker out, leaving only the two emergency lights on the agents.

 

“I told you to pack your trash, Rachel. I don't remember giving you permission to leave.” Quinn tells her sternly. The new agent looks up at her confused. “You requested a transfer to NCIS?”

 

“Yes, I did.” Rachel says, not looking at her new boss and feeling silly about her storming out.

 

“Why? And how come you didn't tell me when you came over that night?” Quinn asks.

 

“I needed a long break away from Mossad.” Rachel says looking down meekly. “I was going to tell you, but I guess it just slipped my mind. We were talking about other things that night as I recall.” Quinn nods, vividly remembering her conversation about Brody with Rachel.

 

“No matter what Brody went through in his life to make him the way that he was, he was still a Svengali, Rachel.” Quinn says suddenly, remembering what she had wanted to say to Rachel but was too drunk to say it. “ He was no better than his own father. At least he can't get to Beth now.”

 

“Yeah well, I'm sure there is some psychological theory about dating people that resemble your father.” Rachel mutters, only half jokingly. “But thanks, for trying Agent Fabray.”

 

“Does Mossad know that you killed him?” Quinn asks, changing the subject.

 

“No, they believed in what you wrote in your report.” Rachel assures her. “Only you and I know the truth. And I thank you for that once again Agent Fabray.”

 

“Don't mention it.” the senior agent tells her with a slight smile. “ I trust you, Rachel, and you know that.”

 

Rachel smiles brightly at her boss.

 

“But once we leave this elevator-” the senior agent adds on as she presses the emergency button.

 

“You start kicking my butt?”

 

The lights automatically come back on and the elevator doors open. Before they walk out, Quinn slaps Rachel on the back of the head, as she would her other agents, just in case Berry didn't believe her about her belonging on the team now.

 

The senior agent winks at the grinning, new probationary agent, before turning around and making their way back to the bullpen. When they get there, Quinn pulls Rachel forward to formally introduce her to the rest of the team.

 

“This is Probationary Agent Rachel Berry and she's going to be with our team for a while.” the senior agent says formally. “ _Everyone_ give her a nice, warm welcome and show her how we operate around here.”

 

The smile on Santana's face drops and she looks like she is about to protest. Before she can, the blond special-agent-in-charge silences her with a pointed glare.

 

“This is not a democracy, Lopez, she's staying on the team. And if you have a problem with that, you know where to leave your badge and gun.” the senior agent orders as she walks over to Dani's desk.

 

Santana stomps over to her desk, sits down and glares hard at her monitor, not saying another word.

 

“Since that desk over there is Dani's, you can share my desk for the week until we can get you one from storage.” the senior agent says as she pulls the chair up to her desk and pats on it. Rachel takes the cue and sits lightly down on the chair while Quinn went back over to her own and sorted the big stack of case files she has on her desk. When she's done, she gives half of the pile to Rachel and keeps the other pile.

 

“Since we're not working on an active investigation at the moment and there's nothing else you can do, you're going to help me write up reports on our completed case files.” Quinn orders her.

 

Thankfully, before they could get started with the piles of paperwork, Agent Evans hangs up the phone and looks over his boss and says

 

“Uh boss, we may have a situation at the Smithsonian museum.”

 

 

 

 


	13. Welcome To NCIS

 

“What?” the senior agent asks scowling, as she turns her chair to face the senior probie.

 

“Uh- well its, um...kind of complicated. But there may have been a murder.” Sam stutters out as he hangs up the phone. Quinn sets her papers down on the desk and Rachel follows suit.

 

“May have been, Evans?” the blond asks as her irritation with the probie grows. Sam turns his chair to face his boss, making eye contact with the blond. He sees that the older blond is about to lose her patience with him, so he nervously brushes some of his shaggy locks out of his eyes.

 

“Yeah. Well, they have a Union solider who was dug up on a battlefield in Manassas. And now they think that he may have been a Marine.” he finishes quietly.

 

Quinn rolls her eyes at the probie and picks up the papers once again. “ It was the Civil War, Evans. Marines fought on both sides.”

 

Sam stares at his boss quizzically for a moment, before realizing that his boss had the wrong idea.

 

“Right. I know that boss. But this Marine had dog tags. Those didn't exist back then.” Sam rambles, receiving a glare in return. “ I know that you know that, being a Marine and all.”

 

Quinn throws her papers down on the desk and huffs. “Get to the point, Evans.”

 

Sam looks around the room to see that Puck, Santana and Rachel all pretending to work, while hiding their barely restrained laughter at him behind their paper work. Puck with one of his hands behind his head, while the other hand was around his neck, mimicking choking. Santana, snickered behind her computer and shaking her head. And Rachel, at least had the decency to have her hand covering her

mouth while looking on at him sympathetically. He gulps his nervousness down and makes eye contact with darkening hazel eyes.

 

“Well. They think that this Marine was killed recently, and um...somehow buried in a way...” Sam stops for a moment, trying his best to explain the situation better. “They can't quite explain it, but in a one hundred and forty year old sarcophagus.”

 

“Dressed as a Union solider?” Quinn asks curiously.

 

“Basically, yeah.”

 

The senior agent nods at him and reaches into her drawer. She tosses the probie a set of keys. He stands up and stumbles about to catch them before finally gaining a grip on the key ring.

 

“Go gas up the truck, Evans.” Quinn said while she stands up. The probie grabs his black backpack and makes his way out of the team's bullpen and to the garage. The three remaining team members follow her lead and stand up as well. She turns to Puckerman, who has his arms stretched out in the air.

 

“Puckerman!”

 

“Yeah, boss?” Puck asks smoothly.

 

“This is a murder in _your_ expertise.” Quinn says while grabbing her gun.

 

Puck looks in Rachel's direction with a cocky look in his eye and a smug side grin. While Santana stood behind him and pretended to gag. “This happens to me a lot. You know, being a senior most field agent and all.”

 

He points in Santana's direction. “Lopez, as always, take notes and learn something from this. Maybe someday you too can be your boss' number second in command.”

 

The brunette junior agent roles her eyes and turns away from him, feeling her headache grow stronger.

 

“I'm sure it does Noah.” Rachel nods, humoring him for the sake of junior agent's ego.

 

Puck grabs his gun out of the drawer and makes a show of holstering it. He walks from behind his desk with his hands on his hips. A stern, yet arrogant glint appears in his eyes and Quinn does everything within her power not to put him in his place. At least not yet.“ What do we got boss? Multiple homicides?”

 

“Nope.” the senior agent shuts her computer down.

 

“Gang related?” Puck asks hopefully.

 

“Nope.”

 

Puck's smirk turns into a slight confused frown. “Defenestration?”

 

Deciding to put her second in command out of his memory, she looks up at him and smirks.

 

“The Civil War.” Quinn says simply, shaking her head at the man as his face completely droops to a frown. He slumps his shoulders and grabs his backpack and walks over to the bullpen's entrance. Agent Lopez follows right behind him and places a sympathetic hand on her teammate's shoulder.

 

“Great. I can't hardly wait. It's my favorite subject after all.” Puck mutters to himself while sticking his hands in his jean pocket.

 

“Aww Puckerman you were right. I did learn something from that.” Santana reassures him with a wide smile. The mohawked agent looks down at her and smiles.

 

“Really?” he asks hopefully.

 

“Yeah.” Santana said gently. “ I learned that you can kiss your delusions of grandeur goodbye. And that there is no way that you will get a promotion before Evans and I. Hell, even Berry has a better shot at moving up the ranks than you do.”

 

Puckerman frowns and pushes her hand away. He scowls at he and stomps off to the elevator to the sounds of Lopez's laughter.

 

Meanwhile, Quinn grabs her backpack, slings it over her shoulder while ignoring an awaiting Rachel. She moves around to the other side of her desk and is ready to leave. It is only when she hears the new hire coughing that she looks in her direction. The senior agent turns around to find that the brunette has her arms crossed over her chest and tapped her heels patiently.

 

“What about me?” Rachel asks. “What do you need me to do, boss?”

 

“I don't need you to do anything.” Quinn says sternly. “Because you are going with us, strictly as an observer. Hand over your weapons, Berry.”

 

Rachel turns around and goes into her duffle bag and takes out her black blazer. She reaches into the inside pocket and pulls out her Sierra. She takes the magazines out of the weapon and hands them over to her new boss.

 

When she's done, Quinn raises a sculpted eyebrow in her direction. “I'm sorry if you misunderstood me the first time Berry, but I when I said to hand over your weapons, I meant _all_ of them and not just your service. I want your back up piece too.”

 

Rachel rolls her eyes, but relents anyway. She places her leg in the chair and rolls up her left pants leg to reveal a well toned, tanned leg with a black holster wrapped snuggly around it. She pulls out a silver sixty-sixth Smith and Wesson revolver and takes the six bullets out of the chamber.

 

“Your other backup piece as well.” the senior agent says knowingly.

 

“What back up piece are you referring to, Agent Fabray?” Rachel asks innocently, putting on her puppy dog eyes for the blond. Unfortunately, it had little to no effect on the stoic blond.

 

“You have a revolver in your left leg and a smaller one on the inside of your right leg.”

 

Setting it on the table, Rachel looks up at the senior agent shaking her head, causing her to huff. She removes her left leg out of the chair and puts her right leg in its place. The brunette does the same thing to her right leg that she did her left and pulls out a smaller revolver. Glancing up at the still dissatisfied senior agent, she sighs.

 

“The large knife concealed at your waist. Right side.” Quinn tells her.

 

Rachel widens her eyes at the senior agent, not believing what the blond was asking. Going out into the field without any form of protection was preposterous to her. Sure, she would be fine if worse came to worse. The brunette could always use her hand to hand combat training. But going out into the field unarmed was completely insane.

 

“You can't be serious Agent Fabray?” Rachel tries to argue.

 

“Completely serious, Berry. I never joke around.” Quinn says causally, holding her hand out for the knife.

 

Knowing that there was nothing that she could do to change the senior agent's mind, she reluctantly reaches into the right side of her waist and pulls out the large knife. The brunette drops it into her awaiting boss' hand, only to have Quinn hand it back to her.

 

“You can keep this.” Quinn tells her, with a small smile playing on her lips. “ I just wanted you to know that I know.”

 

When she's done, the senior agent walks away from her desk and out of the bullpen entrance, leaving the perplexed and annoyed probie behind. After a few seconds, the brunette shakes her head and picks up duffle bag and moves as fast as her Jimmy Choos will take her to catch up with her boss.

 

 

* * *

 

 

**12:30 pm**

**Smithsonian Institute, Manassas**

 

 

Dr.Corcoran, with her light brown locks in a pony tail. She is wearing a blue jumpsuit with the word 'Examiner' in white letters, steps through the grass and over to the grey oblong shaped casket and reaches inside of the corpse's green overcoat. She pulls out the dog tags out of its hiding place in the dark blue overcoat with her translucent blue tweezers and examines it.

 

“According to his dog tags, this poor young man's name is Warren Sorrow, USMC.” Shelby said, turning her head in Quinn's direction. The senior agent, who was holding a DSLR, takes a few pictures of the tags to log into evidence.

 

“How long has he been in there, Shel?” Quinn asks as she lowers the camera to her chest.

 

The medical examiner runs her fingers along the petrified jawline of the corpse. “He's remarkably well preserved. Could be months or even years.”

 

She removes her hand and glances over at the senior agent, who moves in closer to take more pictures of the Sorrow's body. “We'll know more once we get him home.”

 

The senior agent then moves up to the chest area of the body and snaps a few pictures of that.

 

“You know, in the seventies, grave robbers raided a southern colonel's cast-iron casket?” Shelby asks with her pointer finger and thumb rubbing her chin. “They took his weapons, jewelry, and for some strange reason, the poor man's head.”

 

Quinn looks up from the camera as she moves over to the man's head, and stares quizzically at the medical examiner.A part of her wondering where in the world Shelby got her crazy stories and factoids from. While the other part of her didn't want to know at all. Either way, this story could kill a couple of minutes of time while they collected evidence.

 

“When the local authorities found the one hundred year old, decomposing corpse, they assumed that he was recently decapitated, and opened up a murder investigation.” Shelby finishes with a shrug of her shoulders. “By the way, how is Rachel doing on her first day.”

 

Quinn shakes her head the the medical examiner's ability to randomly jump from one extremely morbid topic to a completely normal one. It was no wonder some people in the office who didn't know her as well as she had, called her Queen of the dead. She moves closer to the top of the sarcophagus and takes a few pictures of Sorrow's head.

 

“This guy still has his head.” Quinn said and the camera flashes. “And we're not local. I want to know how this guy died.” The camera flashes once again as Quinn moves to the left side of the casket.

 

“And Berry's doing fine, considering the circumstances. Lopez hasn't killed her yet.”

 

The senior agent continues to take photos of the crime scene, that she did not see the tall, tanned and handsome man in his mid forties approach her from behind. He had jet black hair with wisps of grey along the sides and he was wearing a white lab coat on top of his deep brown slacks and expensive leather loafers.

 

“ I can help you with the cause of death.” the man says in a Cardiff accent.

 

The senior agent and medical examiner turn around, noticing the man for the first time. He extends his hand out to the blond agent and smiles politely at her. But he focuses all of his attention on the stunning medical examiner.

 

“Dr. Corcoran.” he says, taking her hand into his. He leans down and kisses it lightly, causing the medical examiner to blush. “What a pleasure it is to see you again.”

 

The senior agent is tempted to laugh at the flushed face of her colleague. And if they weren't currently working a case, she might have done just that.

 

“Yes it is. How are you?” Shelby says politely, while trying to recall where she'd met him before.

 

“Dr. Aaron Burns.” He says, not letting go of Shelby's hand. “We met in Hawaii almost-oh- eighteen years ago. The conference on identifying P.O.W. remains in Vietnam.”

 

The medical examiner's eyes widen, vaguely remembering what conference he was talking about. Her old professor had asked her to be a keynote speaker at this conference and the brunette readily agreed after hearing where the location for the event was. Shelby recalls spending more time at the bar and on the beach than her actual speech.

 

“Yes, of course. It's wonderful to see you again Dr. Burns.” Shelby said as she looks in his crystalline light blue eyes and suddenly remembering who he was.

 

He flashes her his brightest smile, with a hint of red tinting his tanned skin. “I-uh still have that puka shell necklace you gave me.”

 

 _Dr. gorgeous baby blues._ the medical examiner cheekily remembers the man in front of her. The medical examiner flushes harder as she specifically recalls the events of the last night of the conference and the nonchalant promise to keep in touch afterwards.

 

“Yes.” Shelby said flirtatiously, flashing him her best smile. She didn't even notice that the senior agent had stopped taking pictures long ago and stood stewing at the two doctors in front of her. “They are quite the...keepsake, aren't they?”

 

Quinn stood there with her arms crossed over themselves glaring at the doctors. Normally, she would be thrilled for her friend finally having a social life outside of work. But at the moment, the body of Warren Sorrow is currently in that sarcophagus, for who knows how long. The only thing the senior agent was interested in is how he got there and who was responsible for putting him there.

 

Deciding to put their love connection temporarily on hold, Quinn turns to Dr. Burns and interrupts the two doctors' silent conversation. “ Do you have any information on how this man died, Doctor?”

 

Looking away from stunning medical examiner, Dr.Burns turns around and smiles politely at the rather rude senior agent. “Yes. Ms?”

 

“Special-Agent- In- Charge, Quinn Fabray, _doc._ ” the blond says annoyed, already over being anywhere near this doctor.

 

“Right, Agent Fabray. My apologies.” Dr Burns corrects himself. “ We took liberty of imaging the corpse before we knew for sure that we were dealing with an actual homicide and not some sick hoax.”

 

“Meaning you disturbed _my_ crime scene?” the senior agent says with her eyes narrowed at the doctor and her final judgement made. If there was one thing Quinn hated more than bullshitters is people who mess with her crime scene. Unfortunately for Burns, he fit both of her criteria of people that she can't stand. _Shel, could do so much better than this clown._

 

Mike Chang, Shelby's assistant, chooses that moment to come in with the body bag. He quickly waves to the medical examiner, who politely waves back. When he gets to the senior agent, he awkwardly sidesteps the blond, who gratefully, pays no attention to him. He covers Sorrow's body up with a white sheet. He then lifts the body up and places it into the bag.

 

The doctor briefly looks at the senior agent scandalized, which is something the blond agent sees and makes it a point to file away for later. To his credit, the doctor is able to recover quickly and reverts back to his pleasant self. “ As a forensic anthropologist, I can assure you that my examination was noninvasive.”

 

The anthropologist walks over and turns the monitor and shows a live picture of Sorrow's decaying head. He then points toward an area of the head that the medical examiner and senior agent can't quite make out.

 

“There. Now, I've seen several images like these in the past, but you can't be certain until you get it out.”

 

Mike looks up from his work on Sorrow's body.

 

“Get what out?” he asks, the assistant's curiosity getting the better of them.

 

Dr. Burns crosses his arms over himself. “ In my opinion, it's a musket ball.”

 

Shelby stares at Dr.Burns in disbelief as she watches him turn the monitor off.

 

 _What a first case back on the job. Maybe I should have taken a little more vacation time after all._ Quinn muses quietly to herself as she watches Dr. Corcoran and Chang place Sorrow's body in the bag.

 

On the storage side of the institute, Rachel found herself shaking her head as her three new colleagues, took selfies of themselves with a big stuffed brown bear. Santana, who was leaning on the bear, pouting her lips, intentionally making them look like duck lips, while her eyes stared up at the ceiling. While Sam clicked away, using the camera that they were supposed to be using to photograph evidence with.

 

As Puck stands in the middle of the bear and sticks his head inside, the new agent can't help but regret her decision to ditch Shelby and Agent Fabray to go with the team. On the drive to the Smithsonian, Santana and Puck told her that because she was the new probie, she had to sit in the back with the equipment. Unfortunately for her, Santana was the one who enthusiastically volunteered to drive on the way there. She spent the last twenty minutes in the back, being tossed around and bumping into the various equipment that they had back there. Needless to say, she thought the junior agent had done so on purpose. It was Santana after all, who gave her the black NCIS cap that was currently on top of her head. That also had a nine millimeter bullet hole at the top of it.

 

When they arrived, Rachel found herself lugging all of their equipment inside, since she wasn't actually investigating. Today, she would serve as the three most senior agent's glorified gopher and she was none too happy about it. She wanted to do something and actually take part in the investigation. Anything that didn't involve sitting back and watching Puck stick his head in the bear's mouth.

 

As Sam takes a few more pictures, Puck looks over at the new probie and frowns. He moves his head away from the bear and watches as Santana wraps one of her legs around the bear's stomach. He then runs his hands through his strip of hair and makes his way over to Berry.

 

“Come on Berry! Stop being such a sour puss and get in on some of this bear action.”Puck said as he ruffles her hat. She moves away from him and slaps him on the chest.

 

“Tempting but I think I'll pass.” Rachel huffs as she straightens her hat once more. “I don't think this is exactly what Quinn had in mind when she instructed me to observe.”

 

Puck gasps, causing Santana and Sam to stop what they were doing to look at the senior most junior agent. The other junior agent rolls her eyes at the new agent and looks away from them. She had done everything in her power not to throw one of these artifacts at Berry

 

“Do you have any idea how many people are killed in America by bears every year, Berry?” Puck asks pretending to be slightly offended.

 

“No, I don't.” Rachel said impatiently giving the senior most agent a pointed glare. Puck slowly moves his arm away from Rachel's shoulder, feeling a sudden chill around the former Mossad agent. “But I can't imagine a lot.”

 

“You'd be surprised.” Puck says as he makes his way over to Santana and the bear, just as Sam was taking the picture. He towers over her head and makes a face into the camera and then placing two fingers above Lopez's head. “Evans?”

 

Sam lowers the camera and stares at Puck. “Uh. I think it's about one.”

 

“Lopez?” Puck asks, turning to the agent in question.

 

“What the probie says. He's usually right, most of the time when it comes to geeky factoids that nobody cares about” Santana says briefly before placing her hands around Puckerman's head and claws it. While Puck closed his eyes and frowns.

 

The probie places his eye back into the camera and clicks away. He looks on the screen of the camera's menu and goes over to the self timer menu. Sam sets it for ten seconds and kneels on the floor by the brown bear's feet. Santana moves away from the bear's arms and leans on his arm. While Puck stands on the right side of the bear and gives it a one shoulder hug.

 

“Isn't there something more constructive that we could be doing?” Rachel huffs impatiently.

 

“Like what Berry?” Santana replies, facing the new agent. “Holding your hand and babying you through protocol?”

 

Rachel turns to the other junior agent, who rolls her eyes at the new probie before ignoring her again.

 

“No, investigating.”

 

The three field agents stare at Rachel incredulously for a moment before breaking down into loud, rambunctious laughter. The three senior most agents spend the next few minutes laughing at the new recruit, that they did not hear the footsteps of their boss' black combat boots approaching them.

 

Rachel turns to the approaching senior agent and smiles at the blond, who now had her hair tied up in a pony tail under her black NCIS hat. Before her neutral expression turns into a hard glare as she watches her agent's goofing off, the senior agent tips her hat at Rachel and nods politely, stopping in front of her.

 

Quinn turns to her laughing agents and takes a deep breath. She glares at them and has to repeatedly remind herself that Jesse would be pissed if he had to replace a majority of her team on her first day back. The blond agent puts her hands on her hips and narrows her eyes at the site.

 

“Puckerman! Lopez! Evans!” Quinn shouts, scaring the three agents out of their laughter. The camera flashes, capturing a picture of the three agent's stunned and confused faces. Just as Sam rolls over onto the floor, while the two junior agents scramble into the circle that Agent Fabray and Berry have started. A few seconds go by before Sam is finally able to stand up and brush the dust off his jacket. He places his arms at his side and stands stiffly at attention. “Report!”

 

The senior agent turns and points in Santana's direction. The junior agent put her arms behind her back and looked down at her shoes in shame.

 

“Casket was uncovered by a housing project going up near Bull Run battlefield in Manassas, boss.” Santana tells her nervously. Quinn looks away from her and sets her chastising gaze on Puckerman.

 

“Got the name and address of the construction company, scheduled an interview and soil test for tomorrow.” Puck said nervously. “ The only thing removed from the casket was one cellphone, damaged and nonoperational.”

 

The agent in charge finally turns to Sam, who was flushed a beat red and has started sweating bullets. She gazes directly into his eyes and the poor probie tries to look anywhere other than his boss' direction.

 

“I've also got the prints of the lab workers to work against any we find on the body and tomb.” Sam stutters nervously as he reaches into his pocket and retrieves the bagged cellphone. He holds it up to his boss and waits for her to take it from him. “And Dr. Burns was wearing surgical gloves when he picked up this.”

 

The senior agent takes the cellphone from his slippery grasp and quickly examines it. When she raises her hand, the probie prepares for the slap to the back of the head. But he is pleasantly surprised when he feels the boss pat him on the shoulder.

 

“Good work.” Quinn compliments the team, but is looking at the terrified probie. The senior agent couldn't help but feel elated at the fact that in spite of her month long hiatus, she still had the ability to scare her team straight.

 

The blond agent turns to look at the new recruit. “Anything to report, Ms.Berry?”

 

The brunette in question, sticks her finger into the hole of her hat and wiggles it.

 

“No, just had one question.” Rachel said looking at the hole skeptically. “Why is there a nine millimeter hole in my cap?”

 

The whole team finds themselves snickering at the recruit and the senior agent gazes fondly at the cap. She remembered the day at the shooting range two years ago, during Puck and Dani's ammunition's practice test. To help them with their respective aims, Quinn took the two things that Dani and Puck cherished the most. For Dani, it was her Iphone which served as her lifeline. Whenever they weren't working a case, Dani could always be seen texting away on the black cellphone. While Puck had his lucky black NCIS cap, that he had been using since his first day on the team.

 

The senior agent figured if their stuff meant that a lot them. So much so that two agents would do anything in their power not to hit their respective devices. At the time, she wasn't worried about Puckerman hitting her phone because he was secretly more afraid of Dani than he was of her. She was banking on his fear of the other junior agent to deter him from hitting her phone.

 

But when the mohawked agent stepped up to the platform to take his shot, she and Dani stood two feet away and watched in what felt like in slow motion, the senior agent being proven wrong. His bullet pierced a hole in the middle of her screen, damaging it beyond repair. When it was over, Dani turned around and hit both Puck and the senior agent in the back of their heads, hard. During her turn, she made sure to hit Puck's cap square in the middle.

 

After they were finished and the three agents left the range when they called for a case, the brunette held the senior agent back and said that as long as her phone was messed up, Dani would make sure that she paid for it and paid for it Quinn did.

 

The blond would spend the next three weeks on their old, uncomfortable couch that Dani had in her old apartment. To this day, the blond agent in charge was still working out the kinks from her time there.

 

“Ventilation.” Quinn said simply, with a fond smile.

 

Rachel looks at the senior agent quizzically, but before she has a chance to ask the senior what that was about, the agent in charge's lips purse and her expression becomes stern once again.

 

“I'll escort the casket back with Shelby.” Quinn says as she turns around and moves away from the agents. “ We'll meet back up in the squad room.”

 

Rachel takes a couple of steps forward and taps the departing senior agent on the shoulder.

 

“Agent Fabray.” the new probie calls out. The blond turns around and raises an eyebrow at the new recruit. The brunette reluctantly stands her ground and tries not to step away from the senior agent's intimidating gaze.

 

“I would also like to know if I can drive the truck back to the base.” Rachel says confidently. “Might make me feel as if I actually accomplished something today.”

 

Quinn took a few moments to observe the glimmer of hope radiating in Rachel's eyes. She knew that it must be frustrating for the former Mossad agent to go from constantly having something to do and being at the top of her department to being demoted to a probationary agent. But at the same time all of the other agents, with the exception of Sam, had to observe on their first case with her. She couldn't give Berry special treatment just because she was a great shot. She needed to know that the brunette had the potential to quickly develop the investigative intuition needed for the job and this was the only way the blond knew how to determine that.

 

While she can't have the brunette doing anymore than she is right now, Quinn figured that she could give the new recruit a little bit of a break. Looking over to the other agents, she sees that the three of them were shaking their heads in the negative. Santana, with a pleading look pooling in her brown eyes, even mouthed 'hell no' to the suggestion. The blond looks away from them rubbing the back of her neck and sighs, making her decision.

 

 

 

“Evans! Hand the keys over to Berry!” Quinn shouts as Rachel's smile beams in her face. She takes one last look at the now horrified faces of her team, before making her way back over to Shelby, Dr.Suave and the spastic assistant who's name she can't recall.

 

Her last hope as she leaves the four agents behind, is that she would still have a team left with Berry behind the wheel.

 

* * *

 

 

“Slow down!” Sam shouts in vain, as he is pulled forward in the back of the van. Thanks to the weaving and maneuvering that the new probie was doing, he has been to all four corners of the van twice in ten minutes.

 

Meanwhile in the front of the van, Puck is sitting in the passenger's side, clutching his armrest until his knuckles turned white. He was silently praying to himself that he would make it out of this van alive. If he does die, he hopes that God will overlook the fact that he skipped Temple last week to take a last minute trip to Virginia Beach with his visiting frat brothers.

 

Santana, who sat on the seat in between Rachel and Puck, glaring at the new agent, with her arms crossed and fighting the urge to strangle the other brunette, then toss her body out of the car. secretly terrified of spending her last moments on Earth with the smurf and the two stooges. That would have been the worst ending to an already horrifying day.

 

“I always drive this fast.” Rachel shouts as she sharply turns the van around a curb. “It is the most effective way to avoid IED's and ambushes.”

 

“You're not in Israel anymore, smurf!” Santana shouts as they hit another bump, while the new recruit cuts off a black Civic. The junior agent was hoping upon hope that Berry hadn't driven onto the sidewalk and hit a pedestrian. “You're in America now! That's not something that you need to worry about!”

 

Rachel turns her head and smiles at Lopez and Puckerman.

 

“How about this.” she said sweetly, while putting her foot on the gas.

 

Lopez and Puckerman turn around at the sound of a loud thump coming from the back of the van.

 

“I'm okay back here!” Sam says through the door. “Don't worry about me!”

 

“We weren't.” Santana mutters as she clutches the armrest, holding on for dear life.

 

Puck, using his hand to cover his mouth, scoots away from the seat and moves himself closest to the window. “Slow down Berry or I'll puke all over Lopez.”

 

Santana quickly turns her head towards the mohawked agent and points in his direction.

 

“Don't you dare, Puckerman!” Santana hisses. “ Hold that barf in or I swear, that'll be the last thing you ever do!”

 

Rachel chuckles a little as she starts to speed up once again. She flips the turn signal on and abruptly maneuvers her way into the next lane, nearly missing the blue Taurus by a couple of centimeters.

 

“So Noah,” Rachel says, turning around to face the greenish looking junior agent. “Why don't you like the Civil War?”

 

Brown eyes glare tiredly at the new recruit, while he's simultaneously trying to calm the two day old burrito from this morning.

 

“I don't want to talk about it.” Puck said as he crossed his arms over himself.

 

“It's because of his daddy issues.” Santana says casually. “You should understand what that's like Berry. With your father being Captain hard ass and all.”

 

“Screw you, Lopez.” Puck sneers angrily, turning to face the other junior agent. “When was the last time you actually had a conversation with your father that didn't involve him paying for your crap! I'm starting to think the guy doesn't even exist and that your mom had to use a turkey baster to conceive you!”

 

Ignoring the biting remarks that the two agents have exchanged with one another, Rachel looks at Puck with pity through the van's mirror.

 

“That's understandable Noah.” Rachel said sympathetically. “Father's can be very difficult to relate to. Especially when they're world class jackasses.”

 

She watches Puck smile at her and Santana roll her eyes. The junior agent opens her mouth wide and gags at the two of them.

 

“I got along with my old man just fine.” Puck said glaring at Santana. _As long as he stayed away on business or with one of his girlfriends of the week, we were cool. The only time we ever had any issues was whenever he decided to come home and play daddy again. Broke my younger sister Hannah's heart whenever he had to leave again._

 

He turns away from the two agents and stares out the window longingly. He remembers all the times his younger sister would go into hysterics when the bastard had to leave again. She clung to his pants and begged him not to leave them. To be a family like all the other kids at her school had. Puck always hated the guy for the emotional roller coaster that he constantly put their family through. Mostly, he hated his father for not being there for him when he really needed him to be. The mohawked agent swore that once he settled down with his own family, that he would always be there for his kids no matter what. Even if it meant giving up his position at NCIS.

 

Rachel smiles gently at the mohawked agent.

 

“Whatever you say, Noah.” Rachel said sympathetically. She turns around again and smiles brightly at the road. “ Personally, I think it's best to talk about your feelings instead of burying them deep inside yourself. Bottled up emotions can be very unhealthy, especially in our line of work.”

 

“What about your father, Rachel!” Sam asks, as he sits himself up on the edge of the window. “What's Deputy Director Berry like after hours?”

 

The smile on Rachel's face drops and her mouth widens slightly in pause at the mention of the deputy director. After the Brody situation, the former liaison has had no contact with the man in question. He's called her several times and left dozens of voicemails for her, but she has yet to respond to any of them. She wasn't ready to talk to him after everything he had done and Rachel certainly had no intentions of forgiving the man anytime soon.

 

Seeing the look on Rachel's face drop, Santana smiles deviously as she turns around towards Evan's direction.

 

“Oh yeah Evans, I'm sure Director Berry is a great guy and a real treat.” Santana said sarcastically. “ Teaching his daughter how to kill people in cold blood and pimping her off to a sociopath is something a real stand up guy like Berry would do. Wonder what he's gonna do with Beth when she's old enough to learn how to hold a crossbow properly? Teach her how to rig up a bomb and infiltrate the FBI to become exactly like her old man?”

 

Rachel's grip on the wheel tightens and her eyebrows scrunch together. She could take Santana's barbs about her with a grain of salt. But the latina junior agent crossed the line when talking about Beth and Hiram. Even though she currently wasn't speaking to the man in question, he was still her father. And no one had the right to talk about her family as if they actually knew what they were like.

 

Instead of confronting the other junior agent about her behavior, she does the next best thing. She puts her foot on the break and steps on it as hard as she can, sending the agent in question head first into the back of her seat. Sam is once again thrown into the very back of the van and this time, it takes a while for him to get back up.

 

Santana sits forward and rubs her head.

 

“Damn it Berry! Slow down!” Santana barks at her. Rachel plasters on a fake smile for the junior agent.

 

“My apologizes Agent Lopez.” Rachel said cheerfully. “Thought I saw a squirrel crossing the highway. Turns out it was an old boot.”

 

Agent Puckerman wraps an arm around his stomach and sinks lower into his seat, wishing that they were back at the naval yard already.

 

“We're taking the next left.” the mohawked agent grumbles.

 

Rachel flips on the turn signal and starts moving over into the left lane just as the blue convertible in the next lane starts moving into the lane that they are going into.

 

“Car Rachel! The car!” Sam shouts from the backseat as the speeding convertible gets closer and closer. Thankfully at the last minute, the blue convertible is able to get into another lane before it crashed into their van.

 

Puck leans over, facing Santana, and starts hurling onto the other junior agent's shoes. The brunette's eyes and mouth widen in shock. She feels her hands begin to shake as the brown liquid begins to seep into her boots.

 

“Pull the damn van over, Berry!” Santana shrieks at the new recruit, as the mohawked agent's vomiting gets worse. “ PULL IT OVER NOW, PROBIE!”

 

When the opportunity presents itself, Rachel manages to pull over into the lane farthest away from the highway. It takes fifteen minutes to clean out the puke off of the van's carpeted floors. Santana took off her boots and socks, leaving them in the grassy area by the highway. They managed to get Puck out of the car and laid the sick agent down in the back of the van. Sam took the wheel while Santana rode in the passenger seat. Rachel took the junior agent's spot in the cab.

 

As they took off, Santana crossed her arms over herself and glared at the new recruit with a scowl. Rachel shrugs off the steaming agent's attitude and looks away from her scrutinizing gaze.

 

“Sorry.” Rachel said apologetically. “ First time behind a wheel after a six-month mission in the UK.”

 

Santana looks away from the new recruit and grunts in response.

 

“I said I was sorry, Agent Lopez.”

 

“Say another word to me Berry and I swear I will throw you out of this van.”

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

**2:30 pm**

**Bullpen**

 

 

The five NCIS agents sat on or around their perspective desks. They watched as Sam approached the middle of the room, with his laser pointer in hand.

 

“We ran his prints through AFIS.” Sam explains as he uses the pointer and aims it at one of the flat screens behind him. “It is confirmed.”

 

The image of a fingerprint and of a white and tanned, blond haired man with a jarhead cut, in his mid thirties dressed in his formal Marine uniform. He was placed behind a blue background with an American flag on the left side of him.

 

“Our union solider is Staff Sergeant Warren Sorrow. An MSG instructor at Quantico.”

 

Puck, who changed into one of his spare, short sleeved black shirt after getting sick in the other, stood with his arms crossed. He turned his head to Rachel, who was standing behind him and covers his hand over the right side of his mouth.

 

“MSG stands for-” he starts to explain in a hushed whisper, but is interrupted by the new recruit.

 

“Marine Security Guard.” Rachel whispers back knowingly, with an eyebrow raised. She looks at the junior agent to see that he was looking at her in surprise. “ I've been to over two dozen embassies around the world, Noah.”

 

Quinn, who stood over by her desk with her arms crossed and her eyes seemingly on Agent Evans, looked over at the two agents talking quietly. She noticed how close they seem to be and for some reason, she didn't like it. The senior agent has known Puck for nine years and outside of the inappropriate comments and propensity to be an airhead at times, he was an okay guy. She also knew of his well documented habit of dating his female coworkers, mainly the secretaries and the occasional agents in other departments. Most of those relationships ended badly after three dates and she would receive calls from angry agents-in charge about how they had to transfer some of their best people because of Puckerman. Since Berry is here now and apparently for the long run, Quinn did not want to have to replace her because things with Puckerman went south.

 

The senior agent made a note to herself to review rule number twelve with Puckerman.

 

“What do we have on the staff sergeant Evans?” Quinn says loudly, enough to startle the two agents whispering to themselves. She watches as Puckerman takes a few away from Rachel, who brushes her pants before turning back to Evans. When the blond is sure that the two agents were now paying attention, she turns back to Sam.

 

“Reported UA about a year ago.” Sam said as he twirled the pointer between his fingers. “ Currently building a profile of what his life was like before his disappearance.”

 

“Not anymore.” Quinn says as she steps away from her desk. “ I want you with Tina. Find out what was on that cellphone in the casket.”

 

The agent in charge turns to a sitting Santana and Puckerman. She points her pointer and middle finger in their direction. “You two are on the paper trail. I want to know everything about him by the time I get back.”

 

She reaches over her chair and throws the leather jacket over her shoulder. Quinn turns to Rachel, who is looking a little too eager at her. “And you. You keep observing, you're doing a good job with that.”

 

The senior agent walks away from the gapping new recruit and is about to exit the bullpen until she hears footsteps rapidly trailing behind her.

 

“Observe what exactly, Fabray?” Rachel says agitated with her arms crossed over herself.

 

“You think I care?” Quinn replies impatiently. “Whatever it is, just do it quietly.”

 

The senior agent doesn't give Rachel a chance to say anything more before she is out of the bullpen and on her way up the stairs.

 

Rachel huffs and stomps back over to her temporary desk, regretting her decision to come in today. In between playing gopher for everyone else on the team, Santana's back handed comments and Quinn treating her like an office ornament, the former Mossad agent wondered if she would have been better off staying there instead of transferring to an agency where she is obviously not welcomed or wanted.

 

 

 


	14. Nightswimming

 

**08:00 pm**

**Morgue**

 

 

“Have you ever spent the evening with a good looking man and can only recall bits and pieces of your night together?” Shelby asks while slipping into the scrubs that Mike is holding up. When he's done, the medical examiner turns around and waits for her assistant to tighten up the white velcro straps. She sees Chang give her a quizzical look from the mirror in front of her. His mouth opened forming into a slight 'oh'. She finds herself rolling her eyes and going back to the body.

 

“You know what I mean Chang.” Shelby said exasperatedly, shaking her head at her apprentice. “Just forget about it, I knew you wouldn't understand.” She said as she grabs the white gloves out of the box and slips them on.

 

He takes a moment to think, before he finally understands what Shelby is trying to say. He grins at her like one of those cartoon wolves and sends her a little wink in return.

 

“I haven't spent the night with a beautiful woman and not remembered, but I definitely wouldn't mind it.” Mike tells her reassuringly.

 

With this job and finishing up his medical school studies, Mike's love life had taken a backseat. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been on a date, let alone one that went well enough to have a one night stand with a woman. He was lucky enough to have a one night stand with his bed most nights without having one of his textbooks on his bed.

 

“Well, it's not something to be admired Chang.” She sighs, seeing that her assistant still didn't get it. “ That doctor today, at the Smithsonian, intimated that we shared something in Hawaii, during a conference, once.”

 

The statement about Dr.Corcoran's own forgotten fling threw him off a little. In the year that he has been working with the talented medical examiner, not once did she ever bring up the topic of her love life. A part of Mike was secretly honored that Dr.Corcoran was coming to him about her personal life instead of Agent Fabray.

 

“What doctor was that Doctor?” Mike asks.

 

“The young and handsome looking doctor with the British accent.” Shelby huffs frustratedly. “He looks like he belongs on one of those day time soaps you used to watch in my office that you didn't think I know about!”

 

“I'm still not following you Doctor.” Mike said confused while blushing in embarrassment. He chose not to bring up the soap operas, knowing that would be a conversation for another time.

 

Shelby gives him a side smirk and shakes her head.“The only doctor there besides myself.”

 

“Dr. Burns!” the examiner's assistant exclaims, happily pointing to her, receiving a nod in return. Once his excitement fades, he thinks about how she implied that the british doctor was young. “Oh sorry, I thought you said he was young.”

 

“Young to me, Mike.” Shelby said as she turned around to face the x-rays. “Young to me.”

 

She looks at the x-ray of the skull, noticing the whole at the base of Sorrow's neck. Shelby guessed that was where the musket ball must have exited out of the poor staff sergeant.

 

“Will you rotate the head twenty degrees to the left?” she orders and Mike follows her lead by carefully turning the head in the direction the medical examiner needed it in. When he's done that, she walks over to the decomposed corpse on the other side of her assistant.

 

“He invited me out for cocktails tomorrow evening in order to catch up.” Shelby says as she picks up the scalpel. “I was forced to tell him no. Leroy, Rachel and Beth are supposed to be coming over for dinner and I just couldn't miss that.”

 

Mike scrunches his eyebrows quizzically, as he holds the head in place while Shelby moves the scalpel around in the exit wound. “I'm sure he would've agreed to have dinner with you and the rest of your family if you asked. What's the real reason why? He seemed okay.”

 

“Oh he was more than okay.” Shelby said cryptically as she takes two fingers and digs into the exit wound. “But how do you tell a man that you have no mental recollection of him once so ever?”

 

“I suppose you could lie to him?” Mike offers with a smile. “He'd probably prefer it that way.

 

Shelby stops her digging around in the skull and looks at her assistant with an sculpted eyebrow. “Have you been spending too much time with Puck again?”

 

She pulls out the musket ball and sets it in the clear, circular container that Mike held out for her. She drops the silver ball into the container after rolling it around in her hand for a bit. “To Tina please.”

 

Mike nods as he puts the black top onto the container and walks away from the autopsy table, to the entrance of the morgue.

 

As soon as she was sure Mike was out of the room. Shelby leans over the body of Warren Sorrow and whispers conspiratorially to him.

 

“ Have you ever been to Hawaii?”

 

 

 

* * *

 

**09:30pm**

**Forensics**

 

Tina observed a hunched over Sam carefully, through her big magnifier glass, as various numbers flashed onto the cell phone. Her big brown eye stared intently at the blond agent used the pliers and a couple of other tools, adjusting a couple of wires on the phone. While she waited, rather impatiently, for him to pay attention to her, instead of that stupid cell phone. With the three or four, extra large caf-pows coursing through her system, the forensic tech was determined to get him to pay attention to her.

 

“So did we do it? Did we do it? Did we do it?” Tina asks a little too enthusiastically. “Did we fix the cell's circuits?”

 

“Hold on.” Sam tells her, holding up one of his hands in her direction while using the other to tinker with a couple of the cell phone's wires.

 

“Come on.” Tina says impatiently, as she lightly swats the probie's shoulder. “You're killing me over here Evans!”

 

The numbers on the phone begin to flash and a smile appears on Sam's face at his accomplishment.

 

“Yes, yes!” Sam exclaims. “I think we fixed it!”

 

He then looks up in the direction of the forensic scientist, only to be met with her huge, giant brown eye blinking at him. The probie jumps in his seat a little, scooting to the edge of the seat as Tina watches on with an amused glint in her eyes as she moves the magnifying glass away from him. She chuckles to herself before grabbing the white and red caf pow cup. She takes a thirty second long gulp out of the cup, finishing off the last of its contents.

 

Sam looks at her quizzically, with a dirty blond eyebrow raised to his hairline.

 

“How many of those” Sam asks, pointing to the extra large big gulp sized cup. “have you had today?”

 

Tina throws the empty cup into the tall grey trash can and sinks it in. She pretends to think about the question that the probie has asked her.

 

“You know, my usual.” Tina said, shrugging her shoulders indifferently.

 

“Trust me, I think you've had more than your usual.” Sam says skeptically, with a hint of concern laced in his tone. “Because I'm getting jumpy just sitting here and watching you.”

 

He watches as the forensic scientist rhythmically bouncing her right knee. The probie also notices her left hand gripping her right for dear life as she struggles not to give into the temptation of tapping her fingers along with her knee.

 

“Some people drown their sorrows in alcohol and drugs.” Tina said despondently, as she kept her gaze concentrated onto her hands. “I prefer caffeine.”

 

Sam looked at his friend sympathetically, fighting the urge to pull the gothic scientist into a hug and to smack himself upside the head for his thoughtlessness.

 

The last two months have been really hard on everyone in the office since Dani's death, but the one person who had taken it the hardest, outside of the boss, was Tina. The first few weeks after her funeral, Tina would only go up into the bullpen if it were absolutely necessary. The rest of the team barely saw her and at first, thought it was strange that Mike Chang delivered the reports to them instead of Tina, but eventually, they grew accustomed to it. Occasionally, if Sam happened to stay late, he would make trips down to the forensic scientist’s lab in order to check in on her, maybe even treat her to a meal to see if that would make her feel better. Each time, he would see her crying on her desk, with the hat that Dani would wear whenever she was sent to work with the goth. He hadn't disrupted her and there was one night where he placed his jacket on top of her sleeping and exhausted form.

 

Last week, after they wrapped up one of the boss' first cases, he waited until everyone left for the day and abruptly dragged her up to the bullpen to look at Dani's empty desk. Tina confessed to him that Dani was one of her only real friends who accepted her just the way that she was and how hard it has been on her now that she was gone. He assured her that one day, she would be able to think about the fallen agent and not think about how she died. That she would remember all the times Dani made her smile and cherish them. After they left the bullpen, Sam went back to Tina's place, where he spent the rest of the weekend listening to Tina tell stories about all the trouble she and Dani got into off the clock. He even went to church with her on Sunday and afterwards, joined Tina and the nuns for the weekly bowling tournaments. In which he vastly underestimated his ability to keep up with them.

 

Before he could question her further, Tina's mood went from somber to perky once again, noticing the look that Sam was giving her.

 

“Now!” Tina said clapping her hands together. “Hook up the cell phone board and get cracking before Fabray decides to crack you one.”

 

“Think you mean crack us one.” Sam corrected.

 

Tina shakes her head adamantly. “No, Fabray would never hit a lady.”

 

“Exactly.” Sam said as he turns his chair back into the desk and grabs the phone. “So we better get back to work.”

 

* * *

 

**11:30 am**

**Bullpen**

 

 

Rachel sat on the desk of Agent Fabray's desk, with her legs crossed by her ankles and her chin, staring intently at the typing agent before her. She decided to take Agent Fabray's advice, to sit back and observe something or someone quietly in order to improve her investigative skills. After Agent Fabray left, Rachel found herself looking around the shallow walls of the bullpen, to see who would be the perfect candidate for her observations. Her eyes landed on the mohawked agent, who had his feet perched on his desk as he talked on the phone, looking up information on the former staff sergeant, or at least that what she assumed. She watched him, noting that Agent Puckerman's conversation became less and less professional as it went on. After fifteen minutes, Rachel felt like she was intruding on her new teammate's privacy by listening in, so she switched her focus to Agent Lopez.

 

Ever since the brunette put her expert driving skills on display, at least she thought it was an impressive display of defensive driving maneuvers, for her new team, Agent Lopez has had it out for her. Apparently the junior agent did not find as much amusement in her driving as the rest of the team seemed to and she showed it by making sure the door slammed into her face as she angrily stomped into the building, complaining about not being able to wear her expensive boots again because they reek of Puckerman vomit. When she tried to apologize to Agent Lopez in the locker room and offered to pay for her boots, the former Mossad liaison only received a sneer for an answer, as well as a 'stay the hell away from me Berry or you'll wish you had' in response before she stomps out in the standard issue boots. For the last hour and a half Rachel has tried her best to keep her distance from the latina and hoped by doing that, Santana would at least consider letting her pay for a new pair of boots as an apology. She truly felt bad for Agent Puckerman losing his lunch all over them and had she'd known just how expensive they were, she probably would have driven a little less recklessly. Even if there was a small part of her that felt like the junior agent deserved it for the crack she had made about Rachel's family.

 

It had been a long time since Rachel had work in a team oriented environment. In Mossad, the brunette was used to handling assignments by herself. Outside of the occasional task force missions that usually consisted of her and one agent from the visiting agency. How they operated in Mossad was the way that worked best for her because she did not have to rely on other people to do what was told of them while impatiently hoping that they actually do their part. Once the former liaison was given her task, she knew that it would get completed because it was her burden alone. Because of the nature of her former job, Rachel could only rely on herself and if she didn't do what was needed, she would be the one who would have to explain to the family of her charge why they weren't going to be coming home from a mission. Her job had been hard and there were missions that didn't turn out the way she would have liked, but at least she felt like she was contributing something to the greater good of not only Israel, but to her allies and the rest of the world as well, through her work and the work of her charges.

 

To come into her new position at NCIS and be told that none of the work she has done in the last six or seven years was essentially worthless and having to start over again, had been a hard and bitter pill for her to swallow. But it was something that she could handle. Rachel was willing and ready to learn a whatever skill sets she needed to learn for this job as quickly and efficiently as Agent Fabray needed her to. To be given the opportunity to work with one of the best teams in the agency was only an added would only help her along the way.

 

But Rachel's only problem seemed to be playing nice with the other agents and showing them that they did not need to hold her hand along through the investigative process until she found her footing. That she was more than capable of pulling in her own weight and that she was not trying to replace Agent McKenzie. And she can't do that while she is waging this silly pissing contest with Agent Lopez and her ego.

 

So the former Mossad liaison decided to try a different approach to her current predicament. Instead of bruising Agent Lopez, who looks like she had been having a rough morning before her unexpected arrival, she would try to stroke it a little. Flatter the veteran agent and make her think that instead of being her enemy, that she would like to be her probie, as Agent Fabray would call it, and that she would be willing to do anything and everything to learn from a fantastic agent like her.

 

Rachel knew that trick would never work on Agent Fabray, because the blond barely trusted anyone. Her body language and general regard of her since her arrival in the bullpen two months ago said as much. But maybe she would have better luck lowering Agent Lopez's defenses a little bit because it seemed to work wonders on Agent Puckerman. Rachel figured that since they were both raging narcissists, maybe it will work on her as well.

 

Which has led to her current position for the last twenty minutes, observing Agent Lopez like a hawk would its future prey. She watched her every move and trying her best not to flinch at the occasional death glares the NCIS agent would send her way. She also noticed that while the brunette junior agent was on the phone, her grip would tighten somewhat every time she was made aware of Rachel's presence, but said nothing to her about it.

 

Rachel watches as the junior agent, who seemed to have a permanent scowl etched on her face, hung up the phone with a curt 'thanks'. She slams the phone onto the base and walks around to the front of her desk. Agent Lopez then makes her way to her perched position on Agent Fabray's desk.

 

Next thing that Rachel is faced with is Agent Lopez in her personal space. She looks over the irate agent's shoulder to see Agent Puckerman holding the phone loosely in his hand looking over at them while pretending to be immersed in his conversation. When he notices Rachel's amused stare, he stands up, brushing down on his mohawk uncomfortably and makes his way out of the bullpen.

 

After Agent Puckerman's departure, Rachel looks back up to Agent Lopez, giving the annoyed agent the brightest and most over enthusiastic smile that she can muster up and lightly waves at the veteran agent.

 

“Just what do you think you're doing Berry?” Santana asks, with her arms defensively crossed over herself.

 

“I'm taking Special Agent Fabray's advice and I'm observing for the time being.” Rachel answers with a simple shrug. “More specifically, I'm observing you Agent Lopez.”

 

Santana huffs and rolls her eyes at the new agent, who she's repeatedly fought the urge to slug all day. Especially after the tragedy that befell her Manolo Blahnik boots, that cost her two weeks pay.

 

“Is there any possible way you could that, without you know, acting like a stalker.” Santana snaps at her. The NCIS agent then takes her by surprise by smirking at her. “Then again, I understand if can't. It takes a while to break old habits.”

 

The hand that Rachel has on Agent Fabray's desk balls up into a fist.

 

“What are you trying to say, **Agent** Lopez?” Rachel asks in a clipped tone.

 

Before Santana had the chance to make an insidious comment about her work with Mossad, Puck comes rushing back into the bullpen, with three aluminum foil wrapped burritos in hand and drops them onto their desk. He makes his way over to the two women, paying no attention to the tense scene before him.

 

“The boss is back in the building.” Puck announces, panting a little. “And you should see who she brought along with her.”

 

Santana and Rachel's eyes land on the elevator, wanting to see what Puck was blabbering on about. Their eyes widen simultaneously as they watch the blond special agent in charge walk in step with a stunning, auburn haired brunette, who appeared to be a couple of inches taller than their boss in her Alexander McQueen heels to go along with her short They were smiling at one another, at least the brunette was while Quinn gave her a half smile, as the mystery brunette guided Agent Fabray's hovering hand to her lower back. Agent Fabray chivalrously presses the down button for the brunette as she moves her hand away. The brunette then turns towards Quinn and twirls her hair between her fingers.

 

When the elevator's doors open, Rachel watches in intrigue, as the mystery brunette wraps her arms around Agent Fabray's neck and pulls her in as close as possible, with Agent Fabray returning the hug. When she's finished, the brunette takes Quinn as well as the three spying agents by surprise when she kisses the blond's cheek unexpectedly. She watches the senior agent look down at her feet and Rachel swears she can see a blush tint the senior agent's cheeks. Something inside of her begins to stir and the new agent has to fight the urge to shatter the moment between the mysterious brunette and her boss by calling out to the blond. But she thinks better of it, not wanting to embarrass Agent Fabray and possibly make things worse for herself in the aftermath.

 

The three agents watch as the brunette's tanned hands linger a little too long on Quinn's arms as she appears to be there for the blond for anything at all. Agent Fabray nods at the brunette and stands at the elevator a few seconds longer than necessary.

 

“Go boss!” Puck whistles quietly to the two other agents, while fighting the urge to do a fist pump in the air. “It looks like Fabray's still got it after all, even though it's been ten years since she's looked at another woman.”

 

Seeing enough of whatever is going on with Quinn and that brunette, Rachel feels a strange sense of disappointment in the senior agent. She thought that Quinn was a lot better than what she just saw. That there was no way the blond could ever be like Brody. The woman that she has been with for nearly ten years was tragically killed a couple of months ago and here she was moving on to someone else already. For someone who showed as much passion in hunting down her ex boyfriend in vengeance for the murder of her wife and unborn child, she didn't expect her to move on as quickly as she seemed to be right now.

 

Another explanation for this could be that this was Agent Fabray's way of moving on from her tragedy. Maybe by seeing someone causally, this is her way of healing and trying to move on with her life? If she were honest, the former Mossad agent didn't really know the special agent in charge that well or the relationship that she shared with her former wife. All Rachel knew is that for some reason, the sight of Agent Fabray with another woman made her feel more uncomfortable than she thought it would be.

 

It's possible that Rachel may be reading too heavily into this and being to quick to judge Agent Fabray without knowing the real story. She made a note to ask Agent Fabray about it later, maybe after work or when this case is over. Not that it was any of her business anyway.

 

Santana rolls her eyes and turns away from Agent Puckerman and herself. She makes her way back over to her desk, leaning on the edge of the front of it.

 

“Puckerman, you dumbass.” Santana said annoyed. “Fabray's not dating Breckenridge, to her great disappointment.”

 

“Who's Breckenridge?” Rachel attempts to ask nonchalantly.

 

“If you must know, troll-” Santana huffs as she pushes off the edge of her desk and over into her chair.

“Allison Breckenridge was Dani's attorney. They were sorority sisters and roommates back at USC. When Dani first moved to DC, when she got sick and tired of living with her brother, she moved in with Allison while she was interning at the US Attorney General's office. She was the one who got Dani the reference in order for her to get into the Secret Service. In return, Dani hooked Allison up with Quinn when she joins NCIS three years later. They go on a few dates before Fabray finally decides to stop pretending to have feelings for Allie and starts officially dating Dani.” When she is done telling her story, Santana leans back into her chair and crosses one leg over the other.“Allison has held a candle for Fabray ever since.”

 

“How do you know all of this Lopez?” Puck asks as he and Rachel turn in Santana's direction. “I've never heard that story and I've been here longer than you.”

 

“That's because you don't know how to talk to the right people, landing strip.” Santana said disinterestedly.

 

As she receives two skeptical looks from the agents before her, Santana sighs and gives up her source.

 

“Okay, I may or may not have taken Shelby out for drinks one night and managed to fish the information out of her in return.” Santana says with a shrug. “Point is, the barbie doll posing as an attorney is not doing the sixty-nine tango with Fabray.” Noticing the look of apparent relief on Rachel's face, the junior agent smirks seeing an opportune moment to shake the newbie a bit.

 

“At least she's not yet.” Santana says casually. “But you never know with these things. Grief is a very compelling emotion that has the ability to bring two kindred spirits together. So I wouldn't rule the possibility out completely.”

 

Seeing Rachel's eyes drop down to her lap, the clenching of her jaw and the way that the new probie suddenly clasps her hands together in her lap, Puck takes the opportunity to step in between the two women before things really got ugly.

 

“So what the hell is she doing here if it's not for a little afternoon delight with the boss?” Puck asks, managing to get a ghost of a smile to appear on Rachel's face.

 

“You really don't pay attention to what goes on around here, do you?” Santana asks agitated, yet already knowing the answer to her question. She looks up at him to see him shrugging his shoulders in reply.

 

“Allison was bringing the money that was left over from Dani's life insurance policy to Quinn. They had a late lunch in the break room to talk about it and catch up.” Santana said simply, turning her gaze away from her two teammates, who were currently looking at her as if she had grown two heads. “It's amazing all that you're able to hear when you're eavesdropping by the stairwell.”

 

What the three agents didn't know was that the director stood right above them on the balcony, watching his friend closely, as well as listening on as the team analyzed Quinn's meeting with the attorney with a satisfied smile on his face. The senior agent had come into his office this morning, asking for a late lunch and a clearance badge for a friend. He gave it to her without question, knowing what it was about since his best friend had told him about it yesterday. Before they broke off into the break room, he managed to have a twenty minute conversation with lovely counselor, while she waited for Quinn to get in and thought that she seemed nice enough.

 

 

Even though her team, outside of Santana, had been way off base about Quinn's relationship with the blond, Jesse couldn't say that he would have had a problem with the senior agent rebounding for a bit with the gorgeous brunette. Allison was exactly the type of woman that Quinn would go before she began dating Dani. She was beautiful, intelligent and she seemed like she wouldn't be the type to crowd Quinn's cherished space. Most importantly, she seems to understand what the senior agent was going through since Allison had lost her best friend as well. If there were any person that Jesse would want her to move on with, when the senior agent was good and ready of course, Allison would be at the top of his list of women to do it with. He made a note to himself to bring up the possibility of dating again this weekend, if all goes well with this case.

 

Something else that caught the observant director's attention was Rachel's reaction to the news. It was obvious to anyone who possessed his perfect vision, could see that the new agent seemed uncomfortable at the mention of Agent Fabray's personal life. He didn't know if it was out of professional politeness, seeing as they were talking about their boss. The one thing that Rachel is, one of the qualities that he happens to admire most about her, is that she is the consummate professional. So maybe she became unsettled because of that.

 

But the curly haired brunette could have sworn that he saw Rachel staring daggers at the departing figure of the attorney as she was saying her goodbyes to the senior agent.

 

Jesse shakes his head and drapes himself further onto the balcony as he continues to watch the little show going on downstairs. Jesse tells himself that he is long overdue for a lunch date with Berry and how he should remedy that soon.

 

Downstairs, Agent Puckerman is getting ready to go back to his desk when he sees a flustered Dr.Corcoran walk into their bullpen's doors, still in her black scrubs and her hair tied into a pony tail and blue folder in hand. She walks over to Agent Puckerman and offers a light nod in her daughter's direction. Not waiting for her response, the medical examiner focuses her attention on the junior agent.

 

“Where is Fabray, Puck?” Shelby asks urgently.

 

“Your two o'clock,” the junior agent directed, pointing over her shoulder. He scrunches his eyebrows in concern. “You doing okay, Shelby?”

 

The moment he asks, Agent Fabray walks right into the bullpen's entrance, with her hands in the pockets of her leather jacket. Shelby turns around and walks over to the blond agent, with Puckerman and Rachel following closely behind.

 

“I know how our staff sergeant died.” Shelby tells the senior agent, who nods in return.

 

“Judging by that look on your face-” Quinn said. “I'm assuming that he wasn't killed by a musket ball.”

 

Shelby shakes her head. “One could assume at first, that a projectile that small in size and in mass would produce almost instant death.” Before the medical examiner delves too deeply into her analysis, Santana rises from her seat and makes her way to the group gathered in the middle of the bullpen. She stands behind Puckerman and looks on at the medical examiner silently.

 

“But Pre-Civil War muskets were notoriously unreliable and lost most of their velocity over the first one hundred meters. Our sergeant was previously wounded by a musket ball, but his injury was not fatal.” Shelby finishes gravely.

 

The medical examiner then flips open the folder and hands it over to Agent Fabray. The senior agent then takes a moment to analyze the x-ray of Staff Sergeant Sorrow's hand, noticing the way that the bones in deceased Marine's hand. A couple of seconds go by before she hands the x-rays off to Puck, who holds it open for the two brunette agents to see.

 

“Then how did he die mo-, I mean, Dr.Corcoran?” Rachel asks as she crosses her arms over herself, wondering what the significance of the chipping of the deceased soldiers hand. There were a few times that the brunette has seen that kind of damage done to one's hand. Except on those occasions, the bodies still had their flesh and the bodies were still in the early stages of decomposition.

 

“His lung tissue was coated with an extremely fine film of rust particles.” Shelby answers solemnly as she takes the x-rays out of Rachel's hands. “One can only imagine how long he clawed at his iron casket, trying to escape before he suffocated.”

 

* * *

 

**12:30 pm**

**Bullpen**

 

 

“A marine dressed as a Civil War soldier is shot by a musket and then buried alive in a one hundred and forty year old antique iron casket.” Rachel asks disbelievingly, while sitting in Agent Fabray's chair facing Agent Evans, who returned a short while ago with news on the cell phone. “And you're telling me that this _isn't_ your strangest case?”

 

“Yep.” Puck says as he takes a bite into his burrito.

 

Sam takes a moment to think about it before shaking his head in a pout. “Pretty much.”

 

Rachel turns away from Sam and is immediately drawn to Puck and his burrito. Mostly, she was drawn to the way he was eating said sandwich. The brunette doesn't know if it had anything to do with the mandatory etiquette lessons that Hiram had her take from age five up until she was twelve. Or if it was the fact that she hasn't had anything to eat this morning because Beth was having a rough morning and she hadn't had time to eat herself. Sitting there watching the junior agent eat and the food filled smile that gave her when he noticed her staring, made her stomach turn. She gives him a hesitant smile in return.

 

“I don't know what I find more disturbing.” Rachel said clutching her stomach and pointing to Agent Puckerman. “Your eating habits or the fact that I believe you.”

 

“I'm sorry Berry.” Santana snidely apologizes. “I know it's been a long time since you've had to spend long periods of time around American men. Have you forgotten how frightening their eating habits can be?” The junior agent picks up one of the burritos that Puckerman left on his desk and places it on her own.

 

“Not at all.” Rachel challenges before turning to Puckerman. “I was referring to _your_ manners.” The former Mossad officer points her finger at a confused Agent Puckerman for emphasis. 

 

Puck holds his hands up in the air, in mock surrender, prompting Rachel to continue on.

 

“You should have bought me one, Noah.” Rachel says playfully, watching as Agent Puckerman smiles at her.

 

“My bad princess.” Puck says as he stands up. “Didn't think you'd be into the food truck slop they try to pass off as food.”

 

He walks from behind his desk and over to Santana's desk. Before she has a chance to grab the burrito from the desk, the mohawked agent picks it up and toss it over to Berry. Rachel smiles in thanks

 

“What the hell Puck!” Santana says scandalized, slamming her hand onto the desk. “That was my burrito! You can't just take it and give it to _her_! Pretty sure my lunch isn't conducive with that troll's grass only diet!”

 

“Relax Lopez.” Puck says as he walks back over to his desk. He reaches into one of his drawers and pulls out a burrito he had stashed away for dinner later. What he wouldn't tell Lopez or Berry is that the boss was the one to give Puckerman the vegetarian burrito. She specifically told him not to tell Berry that it was from him. And he had completely forgotten about it up until now. “The one Berry's got is vegetarian.”

 

Rachel begins to unwrap the burrito and takes a bite out of it and moans after a couple of seconds of chewing. She's surprised how good it happens to be and she's not sure if it has to do with her hunger, or if it was genuinely good. The new agent looks up to find Puck looking at her with a smug grin as she swallows the burrito.

 

“I see you're enjoying your burrito.” Puck said with a smirk. “By the sounds of it, Berry, it looks like you've fallen in love with it.”

 

“This is-” Rachel starts off before taking another bite out of it and swallowing. “One of the _best_ burritos I've ever had. Thank you Noah.”

 

“I'll tell Eduardo, he's got another lifelong customer then.” Puck said chopping into his burrito. He looks over at Rachel, stuffs a huge piece in his mouth and mimics Rachel.

 

“Hmm.” Puck moans in a high pitch voice, in an attempt to mimic Officer Berry.

 

Sam looks over at his superior officer, perturbed and horrified at Puck's imitation. He moves away from his computer screen, facing Agent Puckerman.

 

“Actually Puck, it's more like this.” Sam corrects him, closing his eyes and picking up his burrito. He rips a piece off with two fingers, the same way Rachel had when she was eating hers. He moans, nearly impersonating Rachel's pitch to a tee. “Hmmm”

 

Puck narrows his eyes at his probie, as he sets his burrito down in a hump. “Hmmm.” Puck said teasing Sam and poking his tongue out at the probie, causing Sam to stand up.

 

“I'm just going to go help Tina with the phone.” Sam mutters, hastily making his way out of the bullpen seconds later, not giving the others time to respond. Rachel looks like she is about to follow Sam to see if he was okay. But not before she turned her chair around to give the stink eye to the two laughing veteran agents left in his wake. Santana even stands up and gives Noah a high five, who accepts it readily.

 

She pushes the chair back over into Agent Fabray's desk and looks over some of the files on the case that were left on the senior agent's desk, in order to stop herself from giving the two agents a full blown lecture on the way that they treat Agent Evans. She would save that lecture for Noah when she could get him away from the influence of Agent Lopez.

 

Above the bullpen, Director St James and Agent Fabray were leaning on the balcony, watching the immature antics of the senior agent's new team. She shook her head as she witnessed the impending argument between Lopez and Berry. The senior agent had half a mind to storm down there and slap both of the brunettes on the back of their heads and remind them of the dead staff sergeant on Shelby's table who was buried alive and emphasis the urgent need to find his killer.

 

A couple of minutes ago, when the blond witnessed the initial pissing contest between Lopez and Berry, she nearly went down there to do just that. Unfortunately for her, Jesse was in close enough proximity to her, that he was able to grab her arm and pull her back to the balcony. He insisted that she stand back and let everything unfold the way it was meant to. Quinn had given Jesse a pointed look and reminded him of the last time she had to pull Lopez off of someone. He then assured her that if things were to go south between the two brunettes, then they would be down there before Puck had the opportunity to pull out his cellphone camera.

 

“She seems to be fitting in quite well with your team, Agent Fabray.” Jesse said sarcastically with a smug grin, watching as Santana shot daggers in Berry's direction.

 

The senior agent narrows her eyes at her best friend in a death glare, daring him to say anything else. But the Director rises to the challenge with a chuckle of his own. After a few seconds, Quinn turns away from the satisfied director with a huff.

 

“Sure she is.” Quinn deadpans. “If you think Berry nearly killing my team constitutes as the basis for lifelong friendship, then yeah, she's getting along with them just fine.”

 

Jesse looks away from the bullpen, which happened to be at the exact moment that Agent Lopez decides to throw her burrito to the heckling Agent Puckerman, over something Rachel said. He turns facing the senior agent, with worry in his eyes.

 

“How'd she do that?” Jesse asks with concern. “Unless you're just being overdramatic again.”

 

Quinn levels a death glare in the director's line of sight, only to find him not paying any attention to her at all. “Driving back to the Naval Yard from a crime scene.”

 

She watches Jesse close his eyes cringing and lowers his head.

 

“That was my bad, I should have warned you about that ahead of time.” Jesse said in a hiss, suddenly feeling a headache coming on thinking about the brunette's driving.She may have been gifted in a lot of things, unfortunately for her and every other driver on the road, driving was not one of those things. “I believe Rachel was an Eastern European cab driver in a past life.”

 

“Yeah well, she certainly wasn't a cop that's for sure.” Quinn said sardonically, turning to the side in order to fully face the director. “She obviously has no investigative or law enforcement experience, Jess.”

 

“Neither did I when I first joined NCIS right out of NYU.” Jesse says defensively, moving away from the balcony. “As I recall, when I first walked into that bullpen, you spent the entire time hunched over laughing me. Then, you even bet against me with Sylvester, saying that I wouldn't last six months with the agency and giving me a year here would be way too generous of a bet for your blood.”

 

“She told you about that?” Quinn asks surprised, receiving a glare from her friend in return. “That's not the point and besides, you were different. You were a fast learner Jesse.”

 

Looking at the senior agent disbelievingly. It wasn't like he had a choice in the beginning as to how fast he would learn his investigative skills. And he couldn't believe the blond had the audacity to forget why that was.

 

_Jesse feels the barrel of the gun being shoved into his rib cage as the blond step forward menacingly. They were positioned outside of the door, dressed in their best cocktail dress and suit respectively, deciding whether or not they should go through with this suicide mission or wait for the task force to arrive. Which according to Sylvester, would not be for another two hours. Agent Fabray insists that they quietly storm in and take them out one by one before they get away with the huge shipment of nuclear weapons to be sold to our enemies overseas._

 

_For the last ten minutes, they'd been watching the big men load up the beige gun truck and secure the precious cargo inside. Quinn argued that if they did not do something to neutralize the threat now, they may never get their chance. They couldn't wait for the task force to make any moves, that they would have to go it alone. Jesse had been hesitant to storm in because he felt like dying at the end of his first mission would be an embarrassment to his family. But on the other hand, he had to concede that Quinn had a point. His mind was prepared to follow through with the other agent's order at the cost of his life. Unfortunately, his body had other ideas and decided that now was the perfect time to stop all of his attempts to move. His partner and fiancee for the mission, grew more and more impatient at his lack of movement and the fact that his knees were noticeably shaking. Which has led the new undercover operative to be in the position that he is now, with his partner ready to shoot a hole into his gut._

 

_A slow smile spreads onto her red painted lips as her hazel eyes narrow at him. She flicks her white teeth with her tongue as she sticks the gun further into his abdomen and he feels himself gulp while his knees tremble hard. Her newly clad combat boots, which surprisingly complemented the agent's red, stain strapped dress, that she slipped on as Jesse drove them to the location where the deal was going to take place, step further and further into his personal space until the NCIS operative feels himself hit the smooth, grey wall._

 

“ _You listen to me **Jesse Stanley James**.” Quinn whispers menacingly. “I have a date tomorrow with an amazing woman. Brunette with bangs, FBI agent, works in the Behavioral Analysis Unit, speaks several languages and has been to more countries than I was ever deployed to. And I promised her that I would make it back from my assignment and for our date in one piece. I've also made other promise to various other people about coming back safe, in one piece and able to work on Monday, including Sylvester.”_

 

“ _Actually, Sue said that she didn't care if you came back alive or dead, probie.” Jesse interrupts. “She said as long as she doesn't need you for anything, you're fine. And if she needed anything, then she would just dig your corpse out of the ground and ask you about it.”_

 

“ _NOT the point!” Quinn yells quietly stuffing the gun deeper into his abs, feeling the clicking of the safety coming off of the gun._

 

“ _Point is **we** , as in you **and** me are going in that building. And we are going to kill as many of those low level dealers as we can get our hands on until Sue gets here with the rest of the team or we get to our objective! And as your superior officer-”_

 

“ _Only by a year.” Jesse mutters to himself._

 

“ _Am ordering you to go in there.” Quinn said, giving him a death glare. “And if anything happens, you can blame me, since I gave you an official order and you were just following it. Now stay low and in the shadows, I'll take the left side of the building and you'll take the right. We'll meet back up in the center of the room.”_

 

_Quinn removes the gun from his stomach, causing him to sigh in relief. She quietly opens the door and steps inside of it. Jesse finds himself looking up towards the sky and doing something that he had never done before, well two things that he'd never done before. Pray to God that he lives through this, with his hair in tact and question the sanity of his best friend turned partner in crime fighting._

 

_First thing Monday morning, the curly haired agent would go to Sylvester and request a drug test be done on his reckless friend._

 

Jesse glares at his friend and turns away from her. “Do you really want to use that night as an example of my investigative prowess? Because if you are, let me remind you that I spent three weeks in the hospital with a shoulder sling and a bullet permanently lodged into my shoulder.”

 

Quinn gives Jesse a bright smile.

 

“Those were the days.” Quinn says fondly, patting him hard on the shoulder, while she turns around and walks over to the stairs. Leaving the director to narrow his eyes and glare hard at the departing agent.

 

“You sure you don't want this burrito back Agent Lopez?” Rachel asks while twirling the burrito around in her hands. She takes another bite out of it, noting that said brunette looked as if she were glaring daggers into the computer screen, serving as a fine substitution for herself.

 

“Most men and women as a matter of fact, usually have no issues with my germs. “ the new agent says cheekily, watching as the brunette stops typing. Santana quickly moves her head away from the monitor and looks at Berry with widen eyes. She her gazes then shifts to a typing Puck, who shrugs and acts as if nothing was going on. The junior agent thought it was strange that Berry would reveal that he was bisexual and the brainless wonder isn't reacting. This was something that he would normally jump at the chance and offer to have a three way with Berry, like he had when he found out that she was gay two months into her tenure at NCIS.

 

She remembers they were interviewing potential witnesses at a lesbian bar, where a female staff sergeant was last seen alive. The bartender, Angela, greeted her and asking if she was stopping by later on that night, not knowing that she wasn't out at a professional capacity yet. Puck then offered to have a threesome with her and the bartender, with himself in the middle.

 

After that incident, Santana was given free drinks for the next couple of months from the apologetic bartender.

 

“Rachel told me a month ago.” Puck says casually. “When you were down at the morgue visiting Dani and Evans was hanging around Tina.”

 

Still not understanding what was going on, Puck decides to change the subject and swivels his chair around to face the two brunettes.

 

“We'll talk about it later Lopez and I'll explain to you what a bisexual is.” Puck says sarcastically receiving a glare in return. Before she can say anything else, the mohawk agent delivers his news.

 

“Anyway, I think I've got a lead on how our staff sergeant ended up in a union soldier's uniform.” Puck says, watching as Rachel turns the boss' chair around to face him. “He was a member of a local CWR out of Fairfax.”

 

“CWR?” Rachel asks Agent Puckerman with furrowed eyebrows and her head slightly tilted.

 

“Yeah. Civil War Re-enactors.” Puck answers. “They're guys that get together, dress up in period costumes and re-enact famous battles.”

 

“Basically, it's their excuse to celebrate Halloween and dress up like freaks three hundred and sixty-five days out of the year.” Santana adds, looking down at her nails bored.

 

“Why would they do that?” Rachel asks, as her curiosity at the activity peaks. The theatre kid that still resided within her, grew excited at the prospect of having an excuse to dress up and wear costumes during her off time. It would also be a great educational experience for Beth to learn more about her country of birth.

 

“No clue. I've been asking my father that same question since I was ten, when he was around.” Puck says bitterly. “According to this, they're preparing for one of those battles this week in Manassas.”

 

“Quite the coincidence.” Rachel quips sarcastically.

 

Puck grins as he stands up from his desk and makes his way to the front. “And in the immortal words of Lucy Quinn Fabray-” He leans on the front of his desk and crosses his arms over himself.

 

“I don't believe in coincidence.” he finishes, not noticing the five foot six shadow right behind him.

 

“Is that right Puckerman?” a tremulous alto voice asks inquisitively, as the junior agent freezes in his spot, too scared to turn around to face the owner of that voice. He feels her step away from him and the junior agent pushes off the desk as she walks away.

 

“Hey boss-” Puck stammers as he follows behind her like a lost puppy. “ I was just telling Rachel and Lopez about this lead that I-”

 

Before he can finish his sentence, the junior agent feels a sharp slap swipe the back of his head. He starts rubbing the middle of his mohawk in relief, but was secretly glad that his boss still had her charm after being away from the job for nearly two months.

 

“Yeah, I heard.” Quinn said as she turns to him. Rachel and Santana stand up at attention to their boss. The senior agent turns around and briefly makes eye contact with the two women.

 

“Tina's got something.” Quinn said as she turns around and heads out of the bullpen. “Let's roll. On the double.”

 

Puckerman turns to Rachel with a sly smile as he still rubbed his aching head.

 

“In America, that's a term of affection-”

 

Rachel laughs and lightly pats the ailing agent on the shoulder. “Uh Noah, I'm from here too. I think I've got a good grasp on what that means. But thanks for trying though.”

 

Santana rolls her eyes as she follows the two agents walking side by side out of the bullpen. Her eyes stayed on Puckerman, who for some reason, could not take his eyes off of Berry. And this wasn't one of his 'I really want to sleep with this hot chick' that bordered on creepy gaze. It looked like he was actually listening and paying attention to what she was saying gaze.

 

As they made their way down to Tina's lab, Santana couldn't help but make a gagging sound as she watched Puckerman laugh at something that Berry said that wasn't very funny after all as Berry looked on perplexed but nods politely as to not embarrass him.

 

_Oh brother, Puckerman is **way** in over his head with Berry. I wonder if he knows how obsessed Berry is with Fabray?_

 

Judging by the puppy dog look the mohawk agent gave Rachel, as he moved in a little closer to her space, it was apparent that he hadn't.

 

* * *

 

**02:30 pm**

**The Forensics Lab**

 

When Quinn, Rachel, Puck and Santana walk into the lab to the sounds of Miles Davis blaring through Tina's boom box. The senior and junior agents scrunch their faces at each other as they realize that this is not something the Forensic scientist would play on her stereo. They were used to hearing the screeching vocals and the thirty different power chords being played at the same time. Quinn, Santana and Puck see a figure kneeled over the casket on the left side of the casket, so they walk around the other side of it to see who it is.

 

When they see the floppy blond hair of Agent Evans, the four agent move towards him. Before they have a chance to greet the agent, the sound of heels clicking against the linoleum floor cause the agents to turn their heads in the direction of the noise. Agents Fabray, Lopez and Puckerman's jaws proceed to drop as they look at the forensic scientist before them.

 

Gone were the black mini skirts, fishnet stockings and doc marten boots, along with the goth make up and eyeliner that would make the emo bands of the early 2000's jealous. Instead, Tina wore a blue blazer with a matching pencil skirt and a black blouse underneath. She wore little to no make up, with a hint of blush on her cheeks and a frown to go along with it. To top it all off, the forensic scientist was wearing light blue pumps. She was also carrying a three inch, white binder, which most of the team assumed that it would have something to do with

 

It took a few seconds for the agents to get over their shock, but it was Agent Lopez who broke the somewhat awkward silence with her laughter. The junior agent leans forward holding her stomach as the mohawk wearing agent and the new probie look on, scared that the junior agent may have snapped.

 

Quinn turns around and glares hard at the cackling Santana, who could not see her boss' scrutinizing look and then the senior agent's eyes soften in sympathy for the scientist.

 

“Tee?” Quinn asks gently, watching as the forensic scientist's frown deepens.

 

“I know, I look like freak.” Tina said despondently crossing her arms over herself. “You don't have to say anything.”

 

Sam stands up from his position near the coffin and brushes the dirt off his black slacks.

 

“See, I don't think she looks half bad.” Sam offers with a slight smile, hoping to cheer up the goth woman a little. Just as he was finishing up with the cell phone, an overly eager, shrimpy suit from Jesse's office came in and sternly told the forensic scientist that she was to change immediately or be sent home and suspended without pay for breaking all of the company's dress codes. Sam tried to step in and say that those rules weren't strictly enforced before, but the nerdy looking assistant refused to listen. He spent the next twenty minutes quoting the department's dress code and pointed out in the end that Sam was also in violation of it because of his hair length. As the suit left, he sneered at Sam and Tina that the next time he comes down here for an inspection, everyone will be in compliance with the agency's dress code. Tina sadly asked him for a ride back to her place to change out of her skull t-shirt and mini skirt and into one of her monkey suits for court.

 

Ever since then, she has been quietly working in the lab and hadn't cared in the slightest about Sam putting on a few of his jazz cds as he worked. When he tried to get her to go up there to tell the boss what they had found out of the phone, Tina adamantly refused to go up stairs in her current get up. And as he looks over at Santana, who was having a hard time standing up thanks to her endless laughter while Puck and Rachel were gapping at her like goldfish, he understands her refusal.

 

“Is she referring to that hideous Ryan Seacrest tattoo on her neck?” Rachel asks quietly leaning over to Puck.

 

“Why?” Quinn asks curiously. In the ten years that she's been working at NCIS, Quinn has never heard of any dress codes that the agency would actually implement. The other suits understood the demands of their job and how strictly adhering to the dress code could hinder their work in the field. So why are they suddenly deciding to implement a dress code that hasn't been revised since the late sixties?

 

“One of the director's new admin weenies brought me this last night before I left.” Tina said bitterly as she holds up the big binder with the words “NCIS company policy”. “At first I ignored it, brushed it off as an overzealous intern wanting to get into Jesse's good books. But a couple of hours ago, the weenie came back in and threaten to suspend me without pay if I didn't go home and change.”

 

“He did didn't he?” Quinn asks, a little irked that some kid was coming in to tell her team what they could and could not do, without coming to her first.

 

“He also told me to get a hair cut.” Sam said as he shook out his hair.

 

“I actually agree with the suit on that, probie.” Quinn tells him bluntly. “It wouldn't kill you to take a couple of inches off the sides.”

 

Tina steps forward with a stomp, in the senior agent's direction, interrupting the two blonds' conversation.

 

“It's bad enough I have to wear these monkey suits for court.” Tina said with a hint of panic in her voice. “But everyday?!”

 

The room stays silent for a couple of minutes, before Rachel steps forward and finds herself next to Quinn.

 

“I think you look nice, Tina.” Rachel says with an encouraging smile for the forensic scientist. “In fact,I think I may have your heels somewhere in one of my shoe boxes.”

 

Rachel's surprised when Tina glares at her hard and throws the binder onto her desk.

 

“Nice? You think I look nice?” Tina says menacingly, placing her hands on her hips. “I look like...like-”

 

“Career girl barbie!” Santana says interrupting with a howl, not being able to take anymore. Her eyes begin stinging with tears as she struggles to stop laughing at the sight before her. A part of her was glad that there was someone else who was having a shitter day than she was having. “No wait! You're some Japanese businessmen's ultimate fantasy!”

 

“You've had your fun for the day, Lopez.” Quinn growls quietly, causing the junior agent to stop laughing immediately. “Now can it before you lose your desk and I downgrade you and promote Berry.”

 

The junior agent's smile, immediately turns into a sneer at the thought of losing her desk to Berry It was bad enough she'd lost her partner to the former Mossad liaison, but to lose her position and desk to the new agent would be beyond insulting. She worked hard for her desk and position and she refused to lose it to that woman.

 

Quinn looks down at Rachel with a reassuring look that told her to 'give her a little more time'. The senior agent briefly puts her hand on the probie's shoulder comfortingly and drops it before anyone else could see it. Rachel keeps her gaze down to hide the slight blush that appears on her cheek.

 

“Oh my God, Fabray I cannot work like this!” Tina says placing her hands in her hair, not looking up.

 

Quinn takes a step forward and rubs Tina's back a little. “I'll take care of this Tee.”

 

Tina looks up and steps away from the boss and starts to pace a little.

 

“I'm allergic to polyester, it makes me itch. It's a medical condition.” Tina rambles a little before she looks out into the distance hopefully, snapping her fingers. “I could get a note.”

 

“Tina! I said I'll take care of it.” the senior agent said, throwing an arm over the forensic scientist's shoulder. Sam picks the grey hippo off of the island's table and tosses it over to the senior agent, who catches it without much effort. She places the hippo into the forensic scientist's arms as the brunette squeezes the stuff animal until expels a loud poot.

 

Rachel looks over to Puck with a raised eyebrow as the junior agent shakes his head with a hand cover his eyes.

 

“Don't ask.” Puck says before the new probie could get her question out. Rachel decides to drop it and return her attention to the strange pair.

 

“Can we get back to work now?” Quinn asks, hoping that the scientist was well enough to get them the answers they desperately needed to wrap the case.

 

Tina sets the hippo down and walks past the senior agent to the coffin. She turns to face the four agents, who all turn to face her with a quizzical look for the senior agent.

 

“Do I have to wear the shoes?” Tina asks as she picks at the heels of the shoes and takes them off in front of them.

 

Receiving a raised eyebrow from her boss and a look that told her to 'get on with it', Tina continues on.

 

“ The circuit board in the cell phone was damaged, but we managed to get it working again.” Tina said, crossing her arms. “The battery shut down on October 3, 2012. The last twenty-two calls were made to nine-one-one. None of them went through.”

 

“He was calling from the casket.” Puck observes.

 

“Yep. Cast iron and buried underground.” Tina affirms with a smile. “I don't think anyone's calling plan extends that far, Puckerman.”

 

“What are these last three entries here?” Quinn asks, pointing down to Sorrow's call log paper. Sam looks down at the numbers and nods towards his boss.

 

“Uh well, he was running low on oxygen boss.” Sam interrupts. “I assume he was trying to dial another number, but hit random keys instead.”

 

“Find out.” Quinn orders the probie before looking up at Tina. “What did you pull from the tomb, Tee?”

 

“There were traces of Sergeant Sorrow's blood inside the cover.” The forensic scientist answers.

 

“Most likely from when he tried to claw his way out?” Rachel offers, only receiving a nod from the senior agent, while the goth scientist frowns and glares at her.

 

“Since his fingers were shredded, that must have been a really hard one to figure out...Agent Berry.” Tina says condescendingly.

 

Rachel crosses her arms and bits her lip, getting really sick and tired of the women on this team's hostile behavior towards her. She understands that they are still reeling from the loss of a friend, but that was no reason to take it out on her.

 

“You can call me Rachel, if you'd like.” Rachel says with a strained tone.

 

The senior agent glares hard at the forensic scientist, fully aware and disappointed at Tina's behavior towards the probie. She gave her a look that said that they would talk about this later and to lay off of Berry.

 

The forensic scientist deflates immediately, noting the look that Fabray was giving her and decides not to say anything more to the new agent.

 

“I also found two very distinct types of dirt on the outside.” Tina continues. “One is red clay, which is very common around the Virginia area. And the other had a high concentration of fertilizer.”

 

“What time are you talking to that construction company, Lopez?” Quinn asks turning to face the junior agent.

 

“0300 m'am.” Santana answers obediently.

 

“Take Berry with you.” Quinn said, watching as the junior agent huffs. While the other brunette looked on with a contained excitement at the prospect of getting out of the office and into the field, finally. The senior agent had to stop herself from smiling at the new agent's eagerness.

 

“See if there's anything left of that crime scene.”

 

“On it.” Santana said compliantly as she turned and walked out of the door. The new agent looks at the boss, silently thanking her for the opportunity, before following Agent Lopez out of the door. The senior agent heard a stifled 'If you think you're driving, you have another thing coming Berry' and shakes her head. Eventually they'll learn to get along with one another, like Santana and Dani had to.

 

 

Who knows, the two could eventually become close friends when Lopez's ego gets in check. Watching the doors of the lab shut, Quinn turns to the remaining agents.

 

“Evans and Puckerman, you're with me.”

 

* * *

 

**5:30 pm**

**Bullpen**

 

The junior agent walks out of the elevator doors with a smile on her face. Their visit to the construction site had been a complete and total bust. The idiot foreman hadn't told them anything that they could have used in their investigation. But as Santana stares at Rachel, who was covered head to toe in dirt and looking like the dirty peanut kid from Charlie Brown, step out of the elevator, the junior agent couldn't help but think that it had been so totally worth it. She had put the new agent through the ringer and went on this rant about having to look through every crevice in case they may have missed some crucial evidence in the case. She sat back comfortably and watched Berry dig through god knows how many pounds of dirt, knowing that there would not be anything in there. While she stood by a few feet away, supervising. When Berry started to question that, she claimed that she was wearing her last set of new clothes, in spite of the fact that she had two pairs of clean clothes stuffed in her desk. The junior agent had finally gotten her payback for the puking episode in the van the other day.

 

As the junior agent makes her way into the entrance of their bullpen, the dirty probie catches up and strives angrily in front of her.

 

“Tell me there is a shower somewhere near here.” Rachel says exasperated. “You know, the one you promised me if I crawled through thousands of pounds in dirt.”

 

“We do, Berry.” Santana starts off. “But unfortunately for you, those showers are for biological or chemical emergencies. Sorry.”

 

Wonderful.” Rachel sneered as they approach their boss' desk.

 

“Well you're the one who was sick and tired of observing.” Santana says pointedly.

 

“You made me crawl through a dump truck full of dirt!” Rachel retaliates heatedly, pointing at the junior agent.

 

“There could have been valuable evidence in there.” the junior agent says defensively, turning around to face the probie.

 

“But there wasn't” the new agent says, narrowing her now light brown eyes at the junior agent, not believing that excuse for one minute. The junior agent more than likely wanted to torture her and pulling rank was the only way she could do it. She looks over to see the senior agent and agent Puckerman staring intently at their argument.

 

“Yes and thanks to you, we now know that.”

 

Having just about enough of the heated exchange between the two agents, Quinn steps up from her desk and walks towards the two brunettes.

 

Seeing the blond agent out of the corner of her eye, Rachel steps away from the junior agent, causing the other woman to turn around and step away as well.

 

“How did it go?” Quinn inquires as she stops in between the two women.

 

“Nothing boss. Building site was clean.” Santana says, turning to direct her next statement to her counterpart. “Figuratively speaking.”

 

“Very.” Rachel deadpans darkly, trying to keep her cool.

 

Turning back to the senior agent, Santana continues on.

 

“We taped off the area. But we're not going to find anything.”

 

“Fabray, we did it!” Tina yells as she rushes into the bullpen, with Sam right behind her. When they reach the senior agent, they stand on either side of her, Tina on her left and Evans on her right. Agent Puckerman stands up and joins the little gathering in the middle of the room.

 

“Did what Tee?” Quinn asks turning to the forensic scientist.

 

“Those random numbers weren't random after all.” Sam said panting slightly, as he wipes the little bit of sweat on his forehead into his hair.

 

“Staff Sergeant Sorrow was leaving us a text message.” Tina says excitedly. “From the grave.”

 

Handing the piece of paper over to Puck, who was on Sam's right side. “When you put the numbers into the converter, you get this.”

 

“Only got half. Oxbow not on his side. Kearns, don't let him get the safety deposit box.” Puck reads. When he's done, he hands the paper back over to his probie. “That's it?”

 

“He was buried alive, Puck. What do you expect, a soliloquy?” Tina asks sarcastically.

 

“We ran his social through the banking system.” Sam interrupts. “Staff Sergeant Sorrow has a safety deposit box paid for five years at the Virginia Savings and Trust.”

 

Nodding, Quinn begins to give out his marching orders. “Evans, get me a-”

 

“Warrant? Already called it in Boss.” Sam says gleefully.

 

“Lopez: Oxbow. Puckerman: Kearns.” Quinn orders, pointing to the two agents in question.

 

“On it.” They say simultaneously, as they walk away and over to their respective desks.

 

Turning to Evans, Quinn gives the probie his assignment.

 

“Get me into that safety deposit box.” Quinn tells Agent Evans. “Take Berry with you.”

 

“Is there somewhere I can clean up?” Rachel asks as she motions towards her dirt clad body.

 

“Yeah.” Quinn nods. “The nice, ivory garden bathtub with jets in your master bedroom, at home.”

 

The senior agent walks back over to her desk, leaving a fuming Rachel and curious Sam behind.

 

“You have a garden bathtub with jets?” Sam asks, as the agent in question glares at him heatedly. She turns away from him and makes her way out of the bullpen.

 

“Sweet.” Sam mutters to himself as he follows the steamed new agent behind, wondering if his landlord will let him put one of those garden bathtubs in his own bathroom.

 

* * *

 

 

**6:00pm**

 

**Outside Virginia Savings and Trust**

 

 

The two NCIS agents walk in step with one another in the crowded, cobble stoned little complex, as they look for the entrance to Sorrow's bank. On the way there, Rachel was unusually quiet and had her arm crossed over her the entire time. The veteran probie, in vain, tried to get his new teammate more seeing as how they'll be working together when Rachel's trial period ends.

 

He'd asked her about some of the work that she did in Mossad, only to receive a one or two word answer in return before her eyes focused back onto the road. Sam then took a chance and inquired about Beth and how she was adjusting to DC. This caused Rachel to stare at him for a moment with a smile and quiet explanation about Beth being with her grandfather Leroy and loving the attention she was getting from him. She told him that the two year old seemed to be doing okay otherwise and according to her father, looked forward to starting daycare in a couple of weeks after her visit to the facility she wanted the young girl to go to. The new agent then looked down sadly, when she mentioned how much she wanted to go with Beth today, but didn't want to miss any unnecessary time at work that she didn't have to. It was bad enough that half the team didn't want her there in the first place, she couldn't image asking Quinn to let her miss one day to take her child to potential daycares. He sympathetically told her that the boss would have understood if Rachel had said something yesterday. Rachel turned into the window saying that she highly doubted that and softly thanked him for trying to make her feel better about being a terrible mother.

 

Sam felt for Rachel because he was in her position last year, when he was the new kid. Even though Dani had ribbed him in the same way Puck and Santana had, she would always pull him aside and ask if he was okay afterwards. His fallen friend, who was the older sister he always wanted, went above and beyond to make sure that he was as comfortable as possible with the team. Sometimes she would stay late and go over protocol with him and the brunette was always the first to put an end to the teasing of the older agents when she saw that it was getting out of hand. She even told him that although Quinn was a hard ass and expected more from you than any other team leader he would come across in the company, she was only doing it because she cares about you. Dani told him all the times Quinn would pace around in the basement before crawling into bed and telling Dani how worried she was about everyone on the team, especially if they had a close call. And Sam would see that if he took the time to really look at the senior agent, when she thought that no one else was paying attention.

 

The probie took the time to do that, whenever he was in the bullpen today and finally understood what his friend was saying. The senior agent observed the rest of the team with concern and worry etched into her eyes. But this time, Dani wouldn't be there to ease her fears.

 

Sam made a promise to himself and to his boss that he would reach out to Rachel, in the way that Dani would have if she were here. He would ease some of the boss' fears by looking after the new agent until the others see that the way that they were treating Rachel isn't the way Dani wouldn't have wanted them to. Like it or not, Rachel was apart of their team and they would just have to deal with it.

 

Sam gazes over at Rachel and sees that she is trying to cover up the middle of her shirt, where the worst of the dirt stains were. He reaches into his right, slack pocket and pulls out a couple of wet napkins that he had in there from lunch this afternoon.

 

As Rachel wipes at her shirt, Sam opens up the package and shakes out a napkin.

 

“Let me help you with that, Rachel.” Sam says as he reaches over and starts to wipe the new agent's face, only to have the napkin taken out of his hands.

 

“I can clean up myself Evans.” Rachel tells him sternly, as she wipes her face. “I'm not a child.”

 

Sam places his hands in the air in surrender and looks down.

 

“Sorry. Just trying to help.”

 

Rachel looks over at the sunken look of the blond agent and sighs, feeling bad about snapping at him. At least he was trying to be civil to her, unlike his other colleagues.

 

“You can get the spots that I missed, Agent Evans.” Rachel concedes, handing him the dirty napkin.

 

“Thank you.” Sam said as he takes the napkin with a grin and starts wiping the sides of the former liaison's face. When he's done, he takes the now brown napkin and sticks it in his pocket. “You can call me Sam, you know. Sam I am.”

 

Smiling brightly at the veteran agent, she pulls her hand out towards the goofy blond.

 

“It's very nice to meet you, Sam I am.” Rachel giggles as the other agent smiles and grips her hand a little hard. “I'm Rachel. Rachel I am.”

 

Sam nods and laughs at the former Mossad agent's attempt at humor. They release their hands and Sam turns back to the new agent's side.

 

For a few moments, they sit in comfortable silence as they walk past the spouting, yet beautiful fountain in the middle of the walkway. It was a first for the former liaison, since confrontation with Agent Fabray a couple of days ago. They don't speak the gold and brown sign on the bank is right in front of them.

 

“Is Agent Puckerman always so-” Rachel asks, wondering about the strange vibes that she got from the accommodating agent. It felt the same vibes that she got from Brody, who only paid attention and followed her around because he wanted to sleep with her.

 

“Most of the time.” Sam answers easily. When Rachel turns her head and looks at him uncomfortably, the veteran probie knew that the answer he had given, wasn't exactly the one he was looking for.

 

“But he'll get over it soon, once he gets to know you.” Sam reassures her. “He was like that with Santana before she kneed him in the balls and threatened to go Queens adjacent on him if he tried to sleep with her again.”

 

Rachel laughs and shakes her head, giving Sam permission to do the same.

 

“What about Agent Lopez?” Rachel asks, but judging by the way Sam bit his large bottom lip, she already had her answer.

 

“She'll warm up to you, eventually.” Sam says uncertainly. “But it might be a few years before that happens. In the meantime, you should probably stay out of her way.”

 

“She should stay out of mine.” Rachel mutters to herself, with her hand hovering over the holstered, standard issue Mossad knife over her left hip.

 

Dropping her hand after a few seconds, Rachel claps her hands and asks the veteran probie about the two people she was really curious about.

 

“I got the feeling that Tina doesn't like me very much.” Rachel says meekly while looking down at her dirt clad shoes.

 

“Really?” Sam asks perplexed. He apparently wasn't paying close attention to herself and the forensic scientist's little exchange this afternoon. “She's usually very nice and a little too friendly.”

 

“I guess I just have that affect on most people.” Rachel says sadly. “Least that's one thing that hasn't changed from high school.”

 

“Don't say that Rachel, it's really not you.” Sam tries to convince her, but sees that it isn't working. “It's just that the last couple of months have been really hard on everyone, especially Tina. One of her best friends was killed and she's just trying to protect herself from going through all of that again. We all are actually.”

 

“But once she gets to know you, you two will be fast friends.” Sam tells her comfortingly.

 

Rachel nods silently, appreciating the insight coming from the veteran probie. She knew that Sam was withholding the other reason for the forensic scientist's dislike of her in respect of her feelings. The moment the former Mossad liaison knew it the moment she stepped into that bullpen this morning, but was hoping that her perception was wrong.

 

Some members of the team blame her for the loss of their colleague and since the real culprit was dead, which they did not know it was by her own hand, they were taking the anger that they feel towards Brody and projecting it onto her.

 

Since Sam has been so kind to her, and is probably one of the few people who actually want her on this team, Rachel decided not to tell him about her observation. She would probably vent about it to her father over a big bowel of vegan mint chocolate chip ice cream that was sitting in her fridge for this occasion.

 

After a few more seconds of silence, Rachel drums up the nerve to ask about the final member of their merry band of misfits. The one person, whose opinion meant something to her in the short time that they've known each other. She was curious to learn more about the complicated senior agent, outside of the fact that the blond is dealing with a situation that probably would have destroyed herself had she been placed in that kind of situation. She wanted to know what made the blond tick and what better way to find out than from someone as honest as Sam.

 

“Is Agent Fabray always so-” Rachel asks coyly.

 

“Intense?” Sam finishes for her with a laugh. “Hell yes. That is never going to change.”

 

Rachel looks down, suddenly sadden for some reason at the thought of the blond agent in charge never warming up to her. Out of all the people on the team, the former liaison wanted to prove her medal to her the most. She wanted to show Agent Fabray that she could trust her to be a productive member on this team and to have her back like she had in the blond's basement.

 

Seeing the sad look in her eyes, Agent Evans voices what he's been thinking about since Rachel appeared in their bullpen three days ago. “But the boss is happy to have you on the team, even if she won't admit it.”

 

“How can you tell?” Rachel asks, looking at him disbelievingly as Sam turns in her direction. “Judging by the annoyed glares that she gives me, the fact that she paired me up with Santana or the-” Rachel pushes out her diaphragm and lowers her voice to sound like the senior agent. “'I don't care what you do, just do it quietly'? I don't know Sam, it sounds like she would rather me be on any team but hers.”

 

“That's all just a front, Rach.” Sam quietly reassures her. “She just wants to see how well you can handle yourself and whether or not you're willing to take the initiative to prove that you _want_ to stay on this team. The boss knows what you're good at and the potential that you have, you just have to give her time for her to get use to you. She had to go through the same stuff that you and I are going through, with Sylvester as her drill sergeant, which was ten times worse than anything Fabray could put us through, so I heard. So she understands that you're not Robocop yet and that you need time to get where she is.”

 

“But-” Rachel asks doubtfully

 

“If she really wanted you off her team, you wouldn't be on her team.” Sam continues on, giving Rachel the opportunity to doubt her place on their team. “Fabray certainly wouldn't let Director St. James stop her from kicking you off her team.” He then pats Rachel lightly on the shoulder. He would have hugged her if this wasn't one of his best suits and he wasn't concerned about getting it dirty.

 

“Trust me, Rachel. You belong here just as much as anyone else on the team.” Sam assures her with a smile. “ And soon enough, the rest of the team will realize it too. Just keep doing what you're doing now, learn about all the things we do at NCIS and volunteer to do little things during our investigations to show Quinn that you're serious about this team. When it's your moment to contribute to the team, I'm sure you'll do better than fine.” The veteran probie finishes off with a smile as he sees Rachel's eyes light up at the pep talk.

 

“Thank you Sam.” Rachel tells him fondly. “That was what I needed to hear.”

 

“No problem, Rachel.” Sam tells her. “It will get better, you just have to stick it out and deal with the crap. Or in your case, dirt.”

 

The two agents laugh as they approach the sign saying Virginia Savings and Trust. Rachel then turns around punches him lightly in the shoulder as he pulls the dark brown wooden doors open.

 

“If there's any consolation, I'm really glad that you're here Rachel.” Sam says sweetly.

 

“Really?” Rachel asks with an arched eyebrow, seeing right through the probie's act.

 

“Yep.” Sam says nodding happily. “Because it means that I'm not the new guy anymore.”

 

Sam enters the doorway and holds it open for the Mossad liaison, who thanks him with a pat on the inside of the arm that was holding the door open.

 

After her conversation with Sam, Rachel felt filled with a new purpose and drive. She would prove to Quinn Fabray that she was the woman the agent in charge needed on this time, like she had with Mossad. And with Sam as an ally and a new friend, she was sure the rest of the team would soon have the same confidence in her abilities that he apparently has.

 

As the two agents close the door to the bank, they did not see the binoculars, peaking out of the light blue van. Or notice the fact that whoever was behind the binoculars had been watching and following them since the moment they left the Naval yard.

 

* * *

 

**6:15 pm**

**Virginia Savings and Trusts (inside)**

 

 

“I understand Staff Sergeant Sorrow has been missing?” the bank manager asks looking over at the two NCIS agents.

 

Sally Smith is in her late thirties, possibly early forties, with light brown hair neatly wrapped in a bun. She is wearing an all black business suit with a skirt go with it. She eyed the two agents wearily, as if she were ready to kick the both of them out, so that she could close up the rest of the bank. They were currently standing in the beige looking room, with the one ceiling light illuminating flawed features oc the beat up, looking grey box that was currently on the table

 

Sam stares at the teller suspiciously. “Who told you that?”

 

Sally puts her hands up in surrender, not wanting to cause any trouble with the naval cops.

 

“His brother.” Sally explains. “He's inquired several times about this safety deposit box.”

 

“Why?” Rachel asks.

 

“He felt something had happened to the staff sergeant, he would have wanted him to have it” Sally answers.

 

“Like death?” Rachel asks.

 

“Obviously.” Smith answers curtly. “But without a death certificate and a court order, our policy is to maintain the contents until the lease runs out. Is Staff Sergeant Sorrow missing?”

 

“Not anymore.” Sam replies.

 

Smith's face drops as she digests the news of the Sergeant's untimely death. She had met him the few times he had come in to place stuff in the box and he would smile widely at her and they would make small talk before his departure. It was almost sad for her to hear that she would not be seeing his face walk into her bank anymore and ask her if she wanted to join in the reenactments that he was involved in for the hundredth time.

 

“Anything else or can we open the box now?” Rachel asks impatiently, wanting to get back to the Naval Yard with its contents so she could go home and soak all the dirt off of her body.

 

Mrs. Smith nods.

 

“I'll, uh, be outside if you need me.” the bank manager says as she hastily walks away.

 

When the door closes, Evans picks up the box and proceeds to open it.

 

“We need to talk to his brother.” Sam tells her, receiving a nod in reply.

 

“Definitely.” Rachel says absently, as she watches the contents of the box fall out.

 

The agents find a mummified hand with a ring that has seen better days on the ring finger, that neither of them could tell how old it is. They would save that task for Shelby and Mike back at the morgue.

 

Rachel notices that the hand was clutching onto something and as gently as possible, she tries to remove it. But before she could touch the hand, she is met with a white pair of latex gloves.

 

“Rule number 2.” Sam tells her as she looks at him confused. “Always wear gloves at a crime scene.”

 

Rachel nods, taking Evan's word for it and slips the gloves on to entertain him. He then steps to the side as the “Fight For your right to party” blares into the room. She then takes the parchment out of the mummified hand and opens it up. To her amazement, it was a finely drawn, ancient map whose ink was a bit faded.

 

The former Mossad liaison looks up at Agent Evans with a smile. The blond agent finally takes note of the map as he relies the message from the Naval Yard.

 

“That was Puck.” Sam says with his eyes still glued to the map. “He says that Staff Sergeant Sorrow does not have a brother and that we need to pull the security footage from the bank. See if they have a shot of this guy who claims to be his brother.”

 

“Know what this reminds me of Sam?” Rachel asks as she looks away from the map.

 

“A Mossad case?” Sam inquires.

 

“No. The Harry Potter novels.” Rachel says nonchalantly as she closes up the map and places the hand back into the safety deposit box.

 

Sam's face lights up and it looks like as he is about to hyperventilate. Finally, there was someone on the team who had the same taste in novels as him.

 

“You read those too?” he asks excitedly.

 

“Yes?” the former liaison states. “To Beth at bedtime. Even though she doesn't have a full grasp of what's going on in the books or its content, she giggles and claps whenever I read the parts about Hermione and scoffs at Draco.”

 

“You are raising your kid perfectly Rachel.” Sam says fondly. “She developing a great taste in characters.”

 

* * *

 

 

**6:30 pm**

**Virginia Savings and Trust (outside)**

 

 

The two exhausted agents make their way to the water fountain, ready to go back and hand what they've found over to the boss in order to end their days, Sam touches shoulders with a scruffy man in a baseball cap wearing flannel. The man politely puts his hand on the blond agent's shoulder to call his attention as he and Rachel start to walk further away.

 

“Hey excuse me!” he shouts out, causing Rachel and Sam to stop for a moment. But when they getting going again, the man shouts once more. “Excuse me!”

 

Rachel and Sam stop and turn around, noticing the lost man near the fountain.

 

When the man has both of the stranger's attentions, he smiles and walks towards them.

 

“Do you know where I can find, uh Kelleher Avenue?” the mysterious man asks as he points a thumb behind himself.

 

Sam steps forward with a scrutinizing gaze.

 

“Uh yeah. It's North of here, about four blocks.” Sam says as casually as possible, in spite of his gut screaming that there was something wrong with this picture.

 

“Four blocks?” the man asks again.

 

“Yeah.” Sam replies nodding. He nods knowingly in the liaison's direction and they turn around to walk away. They don't get far before the man's voice turns them around once again.

 

“Yeah. Hey.” the man says stepping into their space as the two agents look at him uncertainly. “I'm gonna need that map too.”

 

“Excuse me?” Sam asks defensively, stepping forward towards Rachel's line of sight.

 

“The map.” the man states impatiently. He narrows his eyes at the two agents and moves his head to the side. “Why don't you take a look at that van behind me.”

 

They both lean forward and see the light blue van behind him, with the black barrel of a sniper rifle sticking out of it, pointing in their direction.

 

Rachel and Sam nod at the mysterious man, ready to do what was asked of them, not wanting to take the chance of the man and his accomplices shooting out into the open crowd.

 

Sam holds one hand up and pulls out the map, that was now in a plastic evidence baggie. He hands it over to the man, who places it in his back pocket.

 

“Now give me your weapon.” the man tells Sam, holding out his hand for the weapon. When Sam hesitates and doesn't hand it over right away, the man becomes impatient.

 

“Come on! Give it to me!” the man shouts at them until Sam finally surrenders it over to him.

 

The man takes Sam's gun, unloading the charger and the lone bullet in the chamber before he throws it out.

 

“Now back up.” the man orders the two agents.

 

Rachel and Sam look behind themselves, then at each other, wondering what exactly this man had planned on doing to them. The only possible, dangerous thing behind them was the water fountain.

 

“Back up.” he orders them and watches as they take a couple of steps towards the fountain.

 

“Back up!” the man shouts, waiting for them to get to the edge. When they are standing on the fountain's ridge, the man takes a couple of steps forward and gets into their personal space.

 

“Now what?” Sam says defiantly, with his hands still held up.

 

The man glares and looks over the two agents, before making his move.

 

“Now, you get wet.” Before they have any time to react, Rachel and Sam tumble back into the water fountain creating a big splash as the man and the van he came in disappears before either of the agents come up for air.

 

Sam and Rachel come up at around the same time, drenched. The blond agent's hair stuck firmly onto his face as he gasps for air through the part of his hair. He sweeps some of it off to the side and pulls his phone out of his pocket in order to call for back up, only to find that his phone is long gone.

 

“Damn it!” Sam shouts angrily as he tosses his phone out of the fountain area. He looks over to find Rachel shaking her curly, wet locks into his direction. “Fabray is going to kill me!”

 

Rachel laughs at the pissed off agent and shakes her wet hair. This case would definitely go into Rachel's book of the strangest cases she has ever worked.

 

“Look on the bright side Evans.” Rachel says with a cheeky grin. “At least I'm clean again.”

 

Sam crosses his arms and pouts in the water for a few more minutes, not looking forward to what the boss was going to say when she hears that not only does one of their perpetrators have the map that Sorrow died for. But that they let the man get away with tossing them in the fountain.

 

Santana and Puck were going to have a field day with this incident for a while.

 

 

 


	15. What She Would Have Wanted

 

 

**8:30 pm**

**Bullpen**

 

 

The senior agent stalks into the bullpen biting her lip, frustrated at the turn that this case was taking. She should have expected that the bastards behind this could possibly be following the investigation as well. The blond begins to chastise herself for sending Rachel and Sam to interview the bank manager by themselves, they were probies after all. Maybe if herself or Puckerman had gone with them, that they would have at least had a slight advantage against the people responsible for this.

 

As she makes her way to her desk, Quinn barely notices Rachel, who was sitting in her chair with her knees pressed tightly together, scribbling onto a sheet of printer paper. The new agent had changed out of her mud stained and water drenched clothing and into a couple of pieces of clothing that she borrowed from Sam. She wore his black sweatpants with 'NCIS' written in white letters. Along with his faded grey and red 'MIT' shirt. The brunette's straight locks were now a curly, light brown mane.

 

She has been sitting like this ever since she and Evans returned from their failed mission to retrieve the map that would lead the team to Staff Sergeant Sorrow's murder. During the entire ride back to the Naval Yard, she had to reassure a panic stricken Sam that they were going to catch the bastard that threw them into the fountains. She even promised Evans that as soon as they caught them, that she would break the guy's arm for him to make the veteran probationary agent happy. He seemed to calm down a bit since then, mostly because the senior agent nor were any of their other teammates present by the time they arrived in the bullpen after changing.

 

Rachel doesn't stop what she is doing when she hears the footsteps of the senior agent approach her desk, as she diligently worked on something for the case. She felt the senior agent's eyes study her for a moment and the new agent is tempted to stare back and make a joke out of it. But the brunette thinks better of it, remembering that she was on very thin ice with her blond boss. So Rachel pretends to focus on her task at hand.

 

Sam on the other hand, who was wearing his black NCIS shirt with his grey MIT sweats, stands up from his desk at the sight of his boss and brushes his hair out of his face. He walks around until he is in the center of the bullpen again and hastily walks over to Agent Fabray's desk.

 

Agent Fabray turns around and looks at the nervous looking probie and stares at him intently.

 

“Boss, I'm so sorry.” Sam says apologetically as he looks down at his feet. “I screwed up and I swear it won't happen again.”

 

“It wasn't your fault, probie.” Quinn said understandingly. “They've been playing us this whole time. They used us to get into that safety deposit box for them.”

 

Sam hesitantly raises his head up a little, thinking that Quinn was only saying that before she would slap him over the head and yell at him for the whole bullpen to here. But when he looks into her eyes and sees that she was being genuine, Sam feels the weight of his mistake lift from his shoulders a little bit.

 

“Well, he knew exactly what he wanted.” Sam tells her with a sigh. “All he wanted was the map-”

 

The senior agents eyes narrow at the other blond agent and all the understanding that was in her eyes earlier, is no where to be found now.

 

“Map? What map?” Quinn says sternly put her hands on her hips and causing the probie to take a couple of steps back away from his boss. “Map of what , Evans?”

 

“I-I didn't really get a good look at it?” Sam stumbles out nervously.

 

“Maybe it's a treasure map, probie.” Puck sneers as he and Santana walk into the bullpen entrance near Sam's desk. He stops in front of the boss, with Santana right behind him. “You know, like gold, silver, diamonds-”

 

“This isn't from one of your dumbass movies Puckerman!” Quinn tells him sharply, making the junior agent lower his head in shame.

 

“Sorry boss.” Puck said quietly.

 

Brushing off the junior agent's apology, Quinn steps away from her desk and moves to the center of the bullpen, with the rest of the team following her lead.

 

“We need to find this guy.” the senior agent says urgently.

 

“He claimed to be Staff Sergeant Sorrow's brother.” Sam says, repeating the information that he had gotten from the bank manager.

 

“We might have a name for Staff Sergeant's mystery non brother.” Santana adds, as the team's eyes land on her. “While Berry and Evans were skinny dipping in the fountain, Puckerman and I have been researching the names that were in Sorrow's farewell message, Oxbow and Kearns.”

 

“Oxbow was one of the names on the map.” Sam recalls while scratching his head. “The other name might be his.”

 

“Judd Kearns.” Puck says, elaborating on his probie's statement. “A member of the same Civil War club that our dead Staff Sergeant belonged to.”

 

“Get an address?” the senior agent asks while turning to look at Agents Puckerman and Lopez.

 

“Yeah, but he wasn't there.” Santana says crossing her arms over herself. “The club is on their way to Manassas Battlefield Park for a re-enactment.”

 

“They should be there tomorrow afternoon.” Puck finishes his partner's sentence.

 

Filling in the last piece of her artwork, Rachel sets the mechanical pencil down on the senior agent's desk and stands up from the chair. She walks around the desk and makes her way over to the debriefing agents.

 

“Evans, what else do you remember about that map?” Quinn asks him.

 

Before he has a chance to answer, Rachel moves into the middle of the agent's circle.

 

“I think I may be able to assist you with you that.”Rachel says confidentially as she hands the map over to the senior agent.

 

Quinn looks down and lightly touches the map, amazed at the amount of detail and precision in this sketch. She had no idea that Berry could even draw, let alone draw this well. The senior agent was starting to think that maybe Jesse may have been right all along about the former Mossad operative and her capabilities.

 

The director was going to have a field day the next time she walks into his office with her tail between her legs to tell him that.

 

The senior agent hands the map to the other three agents, who gape and look on at the map with bulging eyes. The blond agent in charge looks up to find a satisfied grin on Rachel's face.

 

“At Mossad, officers who fail to observe, generally don't last very long.”

 

“Is that so?” Santana says as she begrudgingly looks away from the map. “Do they also get dropped kicked into water fountains like NCIS agents apparently do.”

 

“That would have _never_ happened-” Rachel said as she glares fiercely at the senior agent. “if I would have had my _weapons_ **.”**

 

Rolling her eyes and not justifying Rachel's statement with any sort of response, Quinn decides to steer the conversation back to the mission at hand.

 

“Evans, go find out what this map is of.” Agent Fabray orders, receiving a nod in return. “When you're done with that, you can go home but be back here at 0900 tomorrow morning. Dismissed.”

 

Quinn watches Sam leave the bullpen, probably on his way down to Tina's lab until he can figure the map out. When he's gone, she turns to the rest of the team to give them their marching orders.

 

“The rest of you can go home now.” Quinn says crossing her arms. “Like I told Evans, we meet in the bullpen tomorrow at precisely 0900. We're taking my car and the van up to Manassas to pay a little visit to Kearns and hopefully his accomplices will be there too.”

 

“Until then, go home and get some rest.” Quinn finishes while turning towards Agent Lopez. “And don't forget to be on time or you can take the bus all the way to Manassas, Lopez.”

 

The junior agent huffs but nods begrudgingly at the boss. While Puckerman snickers at the boss calling out the other junior agent. Santana then reaches over and punches him in the arm for good measure, and then walks over to her desk.

 

Rachel gathers her bag of wet clothes and is getting ready to leave for the day, when a hand on her arm stops her. She looks up to see the senior agent's hazel eyes staring at her. The senior agent drops her hand once she has the new agent's attention.

 

“Nice job with the map, Berry.” Quinn compliments her softly, not wanting the others to hear. Rachel looks down and smiles shyly at her boss and nods.

 

“As I said, it was my job to be observant.” Rachel says humbly. “It's no big deal really.”

 

The senior agent nods with a smile as she moves away from the brunette.

 

“Well, uh, just keep on doing what you're doing.” Quinn tells, sounding like a nervous teenager. She was having a hard time complimenting and encouraging Berry, without having her think that she's off the hook. After the last couple of days of grief from various members on the team, including herself. Quinn figures that she owes Rachel a little praise for dealing with it all instead of running away from it.

 

The senior agent then leans over and grabs her leather jacket off the chair and messenger bag on the floor. “You're doing a great job so far.”

 

“Thank you, Agent Fabray.” Rachel says brightly. “I really appreciate it.”

 

Rachel takes her things and walks away from the desk. Quinn turns around and watches her walk out of the bullpen and towards the doors of the elevator. She watches Rachel get in elevator, with a small smile on her face, as a couple of other agents who work on the right side of their bullpen get into the elevator with her. She doesn't look away until the doors of the elevator are closed.

 

The senior agent sighs and picks up her things up and walks out of the bullpen as well. She doesn't notice a set of brown eyes her glaring at her departing figure and shaking her head.

 

Santana packs away her things heatedly, being the last one left in the bullpen. She saw the whole exchange with their boss and the new probie, but she paid special attention to their leader's interaction with the brunette. The junior agent knew that Rachel was in the beginning stages of some fatal attraction crush that she may have on the senior agent. But she couldn't believe that Quinn would sink so low and could act that coldly. Dani and their unborn baby have only been in the ground two months and the senior agent was already scouting for a replacement family, whether the blond knew it or not. That is if Puckerman doesn't get the chance to screw Berry first.

The junior agent could see the writing on the wall in this scenario and it wasn't going to be good for their team dynamic. Sure Puckerman managed to get over his little teenage crush on Dani because the former agent had known Quinn for a while. But she doubts that Puckerman will give up on Rachel this time around. The way Santana sees it, the only way the witless wonder will back off of Rachel is if she kicks him in his family jewels while screaming 'she's not interested' in the five languages that she speaks. There was no way the junior agent was going to let any of the above happen. Not if she had any say in the matter.

 

As she walks out of the bullpen for the night, Santana makes a promise to herself to put an end to the beginnings of a very awkward and uncomfortable triangle that was forming between the three members on the team.

 

 

* * *

 

 

**9:00 pm**

**Tina's lab**

 

 

“I'm telling you Tina, Rachel is _amazing._ ” Sam says with excitement twinkling in his blue eyes, as he watches the forensic scientist scan a photo of one of their suspects, Judd Kearns. “I mean she's got a photographic memory?”

 

Tina drops the photo and stares daggers into the veteran probie and his rambling. In the last couple of hours that they have been standing her, Sam has done nothing but go on and on about the former Mossad operative. Rachel did this or Rachel said that. Rachel has a photographic memory and can draw the perfect map with her lips puckered and her eyelids closed. The forensic scientist was fed up with the probie's talk of their new agent and wishes that she could show his mouth shut right in order to get him to stop talking about her.

 

If she were being honest with herself and her feelings, there was a part of the forensic scientist that envied the way her former fling was talking about the new agent.

 

Tina slams the paper onto the table and turns toward Sam, glaring daggers into the confused probie.

 

“What?” Sam asked perplexed by the change of the scientist's mood.

 

“Why don't you two just get a room already, Evans!” Tina says exasperated.

 

A smile and blush appears on the probie's skin as he looks down at the table top and avoids the death glare being given to him by the forensic scientist.

 

“What?” Sam asks with a little giggle in his voice.”You think she likes me?”

 

Tina pokes Sam in the chest, but keeps her pointer finger aimed at the probationary agent.

 

“Never forget Evans-” Tina mutters darkly, grabbing the shirt of the scared agent. “ I am one of the few people in the world who can murder you and leave no forensic evidence.”

 

“Then I guess we should come back another time?” Shelby says as she walks into the lab, wearing a nice black cocktail dress, with a slit on the left side. Dr.Burns, who was wearing a matching black shirt and pants, followed closely behind her.

 

Tina and Sam turn around to find the two doctors standing hesitantly by the doorway. Tina's mood brightens as she smiles at the doctors and invites them into the room. Sam takes this as an opportunity to move as far away from the forensic scientist as possible.

 

“Shelby!” Tina greets as the medical examiner walks over to her.

 

The forensic scientist smile grows as she makes note of the fact that the doctor was not in her normal scrubs, looking like she was on her way out. She takes a quick peak at her devilishly handsome date, standing shyly yet closely behind her. The scientist resists the urge to mouth 'nice' to the doctor, but otherwise she was happy for the medical examiner. It was nice to know that someone can have a life outside of the Naval Yard and after all that Shelby has gone through, if anyone deserves to find happiness, it's her.

 

“Just venting.” Tina says with a smile. “Who's your _friend_?”

 

Shelby looks behind her and smiles at Dr.Burns. She gently takes his arm and lightly pushes him forward to introduce him to her two friends.

 

“Ah, I'd like you all to meet Dr. Eric Burns.” Shelby says. “He's a forensic anthropologist with the Smithsonian.”

 

Dr.Burns smile at Shelby's two coworkers and extends his hand to Sam, who glances over him for a moment. The probationary agent then shrugs his shoulders and shakes the doctor's hand. When they are done, Tina extends her hand to the doctor, who leans down and lightly kisses the top of it, before letting it go.

 

“Shelby has told me that you might be in need of my expertise.” Dr.Burns says as he pulls out the bagged gold ring that Shelby and Mike managed to pry off of the hand an hour ago. The medical examiner had called him right away to pick his brain about the ring and he agreed to do. With the condition that Shelby go out with him and have that drink he owed her from Hawaii.

 

“It's French, nineteenth century.” he explains as he twirls the ring in between his fingers for a bit in awe. “Usually worn by a southern gentleman to telegraph wealth and status.”

 

Dr. Burns turns to face Shelby.

 

“It's in fantastic condition. Where did you find it?” the anthropologist asks curiously as he reluctantly hands the bag back to Shelby.

 

“Attached to a mummified hand in a safety deposit box unfortunately.” Shelby admits.

 

“Sound like scavengers.” Dr Burns deduces with a nod.

 

“Grave robbers?” Sam asks inquisitively.

 

“I've had more sites ruined by that lot than I care to remember.” Dr.Burns remarks bitterly.

 

Sam's posture straightens as he reaches for the map that he was supposed to be deciphering for the boss.

 

“What about the map we found it with, T?” Sam asks.

 

He hands the map over to the anthropologist to see if he could do a better job of figuring it out than he had.

 

Dr.Burns looks at the map for a few seconds, to try and get a good read off it. When he's done, he looks up to the three awaiting spectators in the lab.

 

“Certainly typical of the Civil War period.” Dr. Burns explains. He then points to the ICF in the corner of the page. “ICF stands for Irregular Confederate Forces. Oxbow may be referring to a prominent Virginia family.”

 

“Where did they live?” Sam asks, happy to have something to report back to the boss.

 

“Manassas.” Dr.Burns answers. “Their mansion was destroyed in the second battle of Bull Run by the Union army.”

 

Tina picks up her cell phone and dials the senior agent's work cell number. The senior agent picks up after two rings.

 

“ _Fabray.” Quinn answers, with the television going on in the background. “What have you got for me T?”_

 

The forensic scientist then puts her phone on speaker. Sam places his arms onto the table and leans as close to the phone as he is able to get.

 

“Boss, we figured out what the map means.” Sam tells her.

 

“ _Go on, Evans.”_

 

“The ICF in the corner of the map, stands for Irregular Confederate Forces.” Sam explains. “Dr. Burns-”

 

“ _Wait a minute, Dr.Burns is there?” Quinn asks. “I don't remember calling him before I left, or at all.”_

 

Shelby steps away from the anthropologist and walks over to where the phone was on the island.

 

“That's because I called him, Fabray.” Shelby said. “I had some questions about the ring we found on our mummified hand and he clarified them for me.”

 

“ _As long as you know what you're doing, Shelby. Dr Burns can help as much as he wants to.”_

 

“He thinks that the map belonged to a prominent Virginia family, the Oxbows.” Sam continues on, getting the focus back onto the investigation. “And get this, the Oxbows had a property during the Civil War that was destroyed during the second Battle of Bull Run.”

 

“ _So our guys are looking for whatever is on that property, where the re-enactment happens to be?”_

 

“Yes.” Tina says. “And I might be able to triangulate a location for you guys for tomorrow.”

 

“ _How Tee?”_

 

“You were still on vacation when we did this-” Tina explains. “But when we were looking Boone's dumping ground, I ran vectors between the features of the map and recreated the location through satellite imagery.”

 

“ _Do you honestly need my permission to do that Tee?”_

 

“I guess not Fabray.” Tina answers, slightly embarrassed. “ I'll get that done before I leave out for the night. It shouldn't take me that long to finish.”

 

“Well, if it is in Manassas, I've had several dig sites within the area. I'd be more than willing to serve as a guide.” Dr. Burns offers but stops to look directly at Shelby. “That is, uh, if Dr. Corcoran wouldn't mind accompanying me?”

 

* * *

 

**10:30 am**

**Bullpen**

 

“Q, his club checked in with the park rangers.” Puck tells the senior agent as the blond walks up to her desk. “Judd Kearns is there. Are we rolling?”

 

The other four members of the team are standing close by, wearing their NCIS jackets and hats with their kevlar vests underneath. Everyone on the team showed up an hour before Quinn had initially told them to and have been prepping for the take down of the staff sergeant's murderers, which surprised the senior agent.

 

Before Dani's death, Quinn would literally have to threaten to pull out the team's teeth if they failed to show up on time. The fact that they were all here, ready to make the drive down to Manassas, made her smile a little. The cynical side of the senior agent couldn't help but think that Jesse must have really put them all through the ringer when she was on leave.

 

“Nope.” Quinn says as she pulls her Sig out and places it into the holster on her left hip. “Not yet.”

 

The senior agent reaches into the drawer again and pulls out another Sig, similar to the one the boss carries. Puck and Santana look at the senior agent questioningly. But the senior agent brushes past them and walks over to where the new agent was tying her hair up into a ponytail. Quinn then taps on Rachel's shoulder lightly, startling the brunette a little.

 

When Rachel turns around to face the blond agent in charge, she looks at her boss nervously, automatically thinking that she's done something wrong but the brunette couldn't figure out what that was. She showed up two hours before everyone else and left a cup of freshly brewed coffee for when they arrived. Rachel thought it would help ease the tension of the past couple of days and show the senior agent that not only was she a consummate professional, but a team player as well.

 

Judging by the stern look the senior agent was giving her, apparently her plan had backfired.

 

Rachel feels something being poked into her arm. She looks down and sees that the senior agent was giving her a Sig, similar to the ones she had seen the team carrying. The new agent stares at Agent Fabray confused.

 

“Gear up, Berry.” Quinn orders with a small smile. “Congratulations.”

 

The senior agent pats Rachel on the shoulder and then walks away, leaving the brunette smiling brightly. She looks over to see Santana rolling her eyes at her while muttering something about giving her six months before the new agent quit. Sam smiled at her, mouthing 'Congratulations Rachel'. While Puck nodded, giving her a subtle thumbs up before trailing behind Santana.

 

As the team made their way to the elevator, on their way to Manassas, Rachel finally felt like this new beginning was going to work out in her favor after all. She may not have won everyone on the team over just yet, but she was optimistic that she would with time. For the first time since her arrival in DC, Rachel didn't feel like the outsider looking in.

 

* * *

 

**11:30 am**

**Manassas Battlefield Park**

 

 

“Reload!” the standing union soldier shouts as the four other men in blue follow their order. Once the muskets are reloaded, the four men take their aim, waiting for their next order.

 

The wide, open battlefield was way too big in comparison for this small group of re-enactors, Sam, Santana, Puck and Rachel, who were lined up on the, sidelines note. A few feet away from them, there was the entrance to the forest. Kearns and his accomplices could be anywhere within the surrounding area, with many avenues to escape. They would have to work fast if they wanted to catch them in the act and wrap this case up for good.

 

“Fire!” the sergeant yells after a few seconds.

 

The union soldiers fire their rifles and a grey screen of smoke appears on the battlefield, causing Puck to flinch a little in his spot. The junior agent looked out into the battlefield for a moment as memories of the wasted Saturday mornings he would spend out on the battlefield pretending it was 1860.

 

“Bring back any memories for you, Puckerman?” Santana antagonizes, nudging his shoulder a bit.

 

The junior agent crosses his arms over himself and glares hard at his grinning partner, refusing to dignify her answer with a response.

 

“Reload!” the union sergeant shouts again as the team watches the soldiers spend the next five minutes reloading the muskets. When they are done, they get into position and fire.

 

“That actually looks like a lot of fun, Noah.” Rachel said excitedly, feeling a part of her theatre kid self coming back for a moment. In high school, the brunette would have probably jumped at the chance to participate in something like this, especially since meant that she would be dressing up and getting into a character.

 

“In fact, it seems like it would be a great educational opportunity for one to have first hand knowledge of our country's historical roots. I certainly wouldn't mind doing this with Beth when she's a little older.” Rachel finishes, placing he idea in the back of her mind.

 

Puck looks over at the new agent wildly, as if she were out of her mind, before huffing.

 

“Do you know what little Noah Puckerman's job during these dumb ass re-enactments was, Rachel?” Puck asks pointedly.

 

“Little drummer boy?” Rachel replies with an amused smile. She even got a little bit of a laugh from Santana, who turned away from the group to stifle her grin.

 

“No.” he answers with a glare towards the battlefield. “ I would carry around a bucket, so these guys could take a dump in it.” His frown becomes deeper as the memories of all the buckets he had to carry around for hours came back to him. He even feels a little bile come up into his throat as the smell invades his senses.

 

“They called me their little “Poo boy”” Puck recalls horrified.

 

The NCIS agents along with the two doctors, break out into hysterical laughter at Puck's childhood trauma, with Agent Lopez leaning on Evan's shoulder as a crutch. This goes on for a few more minutes and ends when the senior agent approaches them, after speaking with the “colonel” on horseback.

 

“Kearns is out there somewhere dressed as a Union sergeant.” Quinn says as she approaches her giggling team, not wanting to know what they were laughing about but happy to see that they weren't at each other's throats.

 

The agents stop laughing and focus all of their attention on the blond agent.

 

“You three are with me.” the senior agent said, pointing to Agents Puckerman, Lopez and Evans.

 

The three agents in question move over to their boss' side, ready to search for Kearns.

 

Quinn looks at Rachel, handing the new agent back the map that she had drawn the day before.

 

“See if you can match up any of the landmarks on the map.” Quinn tells Rachel, who nods in response.

 

The senior agent and her team turn around, and head out in the opposite direction of where they left the Rachel and the two doctors, and into the union soldier's camp. When they are gone, Rachel looks up from the map and directs her gaze towards her mother and Dr.Burns.

 

“Any suggestions, Doctor's?” Rachel asks, holding up the map.

 

Dr. Burns takes a step towards the new agent and looks over her shoulder.

 

“Let me take a look at that.” he says. “By the orientation of the map, I suggest we start near some of my old dig sites to the north.”

 

“Unless-” Shelby said as she noticed something off with the map. “May I have a look at it Rachel?”

 

Rachel hands the map to her mother, who flips it over to the other side.

 

“During times of war, mapmakers often add terrain or change the declination of north and south in order to-” the medical examiner explains, but is interrupted by the younger brunette.

 

“Confuse the enemy in case it landed into the wrong hands.” Rachel says with a smile, remembering what her mother had told her. The summer before her junior year in high school, the new agent had lived with the medical examiner in DC for the summer.

 

During their trip to the Revolutionary War exhibit at the Smithsonian, Shelby went into great detail about battle maps and the things that mapmakers would code the maps in a certain way to make sure the enemy would have a hard time deciphering their positioning. The medical examiner had been a huge history buff and even double majored in it during her time at Oxford. Unfortunately for her, Shelby knew that there was very little stability as a historian, so she chose to pursue her passion for deciphering the dead instead. She would remember what her mother lecture during one of her first missions in Mossad.

 

Shelby smiles proudly at the other brunette.

 

“Very good, Rachel.” Shelby tells her. “You do actually listen to my history rambles every once in a while, don't you?”

 

“Occasionally.” Rachel replies cheekily.

 

Getting back to the topic at hand, the medical examiner points looks back down at the map and places her finger in the right hand corner.

 

“The thing that troubles me is this Confederate flag.” the medical examiner says pointing to the flag. “ It is unfurled in the opposite direction of most flags.”

 

The older brunette looks up and suddenly sees why the flag is position the way that it is. The flag wasn't pointing in the direction of the north, as Dr.Burns thought it would be, the flag is actually facing the south.

 

“Precisely.” the doctor says with a smile. “I think we should start heading South.”

 

The two doctors and the new agent head off into the southern most part of the woods, hoping to find the reason why Staff Sergeant Sorrow had to die.

 

At least that's what two people in their group were interested in.

 

The senior agent approaches the Union soldier's camp. There were ten tents set up around the area and a long extinguished campfire surrounded by a circle of rocks.

 

Three Union soldiers, an older man and a man in his thirties with scruff and wearing a uniform with red stripes, were speaking quietly among themselves, most likely discussing strategy for the next battle.

 

Puck notices that the scruffy young man matches the picture that they have the man from the bank videos. He taps his boss on the arm, causing the senior agent to look at him.

 

“Q, your three o'clock.” Puck says pointing to the man in stripes.

 

“That's the guy from the bank videos.” Sam confirms from his position in the back.

 

The man in question turns around and spots the four agents approaching, he moves away from the man he is talking to while keeping his eye on Quinn. She raises an eyebrow at him, along with her badge.

A couple of seconds later, Kearns takes off in a sprint in the opposite direction of the approaching agents.

 

The four agents take off right behind him, pulling out their weapons and aiming them in the direction that Kearns has taken off into. Agent Fabray trailed Kearns in the line of agents while Sam took up the rear.

 

“He's a fast one!” Santana shouts as she catches up to Puckerman and Agent Fabray.

 

“You think, Lopez!” Agent Fabray replies sarcastically as she tried to keep her focus on catching Kearns. “Son of a-”

 

 

* * *

 

Twenty minutes later, Rachel pushes past a tree branch as she and her team, with Shelby close behind her and Dr.Burns bringing up the rear, make their uphill track in the forest. They have been going deeper and deeper into the woods and Rachel thinks that they are close to finding something. Shelby stops for a moment and scrunches her eyes at the large hill, feeling that something was off about all of this.

 

“Rachel, sweetie, I really think we should wait for Fabray and the rest of the team.” Shelby says with a hint of concern. Not for herself, but for the well being of her daughter.

 

The medical examiner felt that they should just turn around a few tree branches and rocks ago, and wait until the rest of the team gets done with Kearns before they went looking for the others. Unfortunately, it seems like Rachel is dead set on continuing on. The medical examiner curses her daughter's inability to listen to reason. She really was Hiram's daughter in that respect.

 

“ _She_ was the one who told us to look for landmarks, Dr.Corcoran.” Rachel notes as she moves past a bush. Reaching the top of the hill, Rachel waits for Shelby, who has caught up to her while Dr.Burns lags behind.

 

“Landmarks, yes.” Shelby says in agreement. “But following them deep within the woods with only one firearm, probably not.”

 

“And how many times do I have to tell you at work, you call me Shelby like everyone else?” Shelby says with a huff with her hands on her hips.

 

Rachel turns around and looks at her mother, her expression softening a little.

 

“Okay, Shelby.” Rachel says placating her mother's wishes.

 

“I believe this is the trail that is indicated on the map.” Rachel says as she glances at the map for a moment before looking straight ahead once again.

 

“I doubt it.” Dr.Burns says, stopping right next to Shelby.

 

Rachel looks at him briefly before she sprints off in the direction of the trail.

 

“Wait!” Dr. Burns says panting, as he and Shelby jog after the spry, young agent. “The topography's completely different today. If anything, we might be better luck starting near the site where the Oxbow mansion used to stand.”

 

“We'll try that if my hunch doesn't pan out, doctor.” Rachel tells him without looking back.

 

“That's not bad Q.” Puck pants. The junior agent was bent over, with his hands on his knees trying to regain his breath. He looks up as the boss takes her knee off of Kearns' back and secures the cuffs on him one last time. “I thought you were still behind me when until tackled him.”

 

Quinn looks over at the junior agent, who looked like he was going to pass out at any moment.

 

“Not likely, Puckerman.” Quinn tells him sarcastically, as she quietly thanks her hard ass drill sergeant for all the times she made them run.

 

Puck glares at his boss subtly, as he raises himself upright.

 

“Oh yeah?” Puck says turning away from the boss and Kearns.

 

“Well what's their excuse?” the junior agent says pointing to the two agents behind them.

 

Quinn looks over to see Sam dry heaving into the bushes while Santana sat on a tree stump a few feet away from him, with her legs crossed over each other and picking at her gun.

 

The senior agent turns away from them while shaking her head. Guess it was time to schedule another boot camp for her obviously incompetent and out of shape team.

 

* * *

 

Rachel and the two doctors reach the clearing. Rachel turns to her left and suddenly comes to a halt, causing the two doctors to stop and look as well at what has captivated the younger brunette's attention.

The former Mossad operative sees a wooden cross in an arch that sat above a doubled door gate that has seen better days, on top of the nearby hill.

 

“That wasn't an 'x' on the map.” Rachel says, turning to the medical examiner. “It-it's a cross.”

 

“This is a graveyard.” Dr.Burn marvels at the amazing site before him.

 

Rachel comes out of her trance and reaches into her holster on her left hip.

 

“Shelby, wait here and call Quinn.” Rachel says as she pulls out the Sig Sauer and takes the safety off of the gun. “Tell her to hurry.”

 

The new agent walks away from the two doctors and quietly makes her way to the entrance of the cemetery.

 

When she opens up the gate, the sounds of power tools fill her ears. Rachel hides behind a nearby headstone, with her gun pointed downward. She turns around the corner, but careful enough to keep herself concealed, to find the man with the white beard in the colonel's uniform with the brown and black horse from earlier. She turns her head to see what the older man is looking at. There is a man, who looks to be in his early forties, wearing a red and white plaid shirt, using the power drill to open up the sealed casket.

 

“We need to hurry this up!” the older man yells to the younger man.

 

The younger man sets the drill down on the ground and moves to open up the casket.

 

“Here.” the younger man grunts as he pulls the lid to the casket open. “That's it.”

 

The older man gets off the horse and heads over to where the casket is, giving Rachel the opportunity to move in. She stands up and approaches them two steps at a time. The two men begin to pull out various muskets and hand guns from the Civil war and places them inside of a large duffle bag.

 

“They buried these things so that the South could rise again.” the older man states happily. “And now they're all mine.”

 

The younger man uses a towel to pull out a curved handgun with a white handle and wipes it off a little. He turns to his older partner and hands the gun over to him.

 

“Well, there's gotta be fifty of them of them in here.” the younger man says excitedly as he pulls out another group of weapons.

 

Rachel takes another few steps closer to them, without either one of them suspecting a thing. She raises her weapon in their direction, with her finger pressed lightly on the trigger. She watches as the greedy men take out a few more weapons, while trying to calculate their latest haul. Eventually, the new agent found herself a mere twenty feet away from her targets, which was more than enough room for her to take the shots that she would need to, if it came down to that.

 

“That's, uh-” the older man starts, turning to his partner He doesn't get the chance to finish just as Rachel prepares her gun to fire at the two men.

 

“1.5 million.” Rachel says casually, causing the two men to turn around abruptly and look on at her in shock. The younger man slowly reaches for the rifle as Rachel shakes her head.

 

“Your rifle is ten feet away.” the new agent says smugly. “I wouldn't recommend trying anything, boys.”

 

The men slowly put their hands in the air, knowing that the strange woman was right. They place their hands behind their heads in surrender with Rachel's gun still leveled at them.

 

* * *

 

“I didn't do anything wrong.” Kearns pleads desperately to the agents on his knees.

 

Puck rolls his eyes and pulls the re-enactor up by his collar. Quinn turns away from the site and pulls out her phone to check on Rachel.

 

“Really asshole?” Puck questions him with a hiss. “What about resisting arrest, Kearns?” The mohawked agent looks over his shoulder to his probie, who gets on the other side of their captured suspect. “And what was that other charge, Evans?”

 

“Murdering Staff Sergeant Warren Sorrow.” Sam says menacingly, narrowing his eyes and crossing his arms.

 

Kearns looks at the two agents in shock, as if this were his first time hearing this bit of information.

 

“Sorrow's dead?” Kearns bumbles out nervously. Santana walks up to Kearns and narrows her eyes at him, nodding darkly. Kearns then begins to shake his head and starts to mutter out an excuse.

 

“You guys can't pin that on me?” Kearns mutters reassuringly, lowering his head afterward. “I wouldn't do that.”

 

Quinn hangs up her phone when she doesn't receive a response from the brunette. She redials the new agent's number again, only to have her phone say that there is no signal. The senior agent walks back over to where Puck and the rest of the team were integrating the suspect, expertly hiding the concern that she feels for the missing agent and her mother.

 

“They told me he got scared and took off.” Kearns said devastated at the news of his friend.

 

Santana steps forward and gets into Kearns' face.

 

“He was _buried_ alive you dirtbag!” the junior agent tells him aggressively, causing Kearns to become more hysterical than he already was.

 

“I didn't sign up for this.” Kearns says frantically. “All that doctor said I had to do was to distract you.”

 

Quinn's eyes widen, as the four agents look at one another with the same expression, at Kearns' revelation. Dr. Burns was the ring leader behind this whole operation the entire time. He followed every step of the investigation like clockwork, which should have tipped her off then. The senior agent cursed herself for not listening to her instincts about this guy and because of her foresight, Rachel and Shelby were out in the woods with the killer.

 

“Puckerman, Lopez, you're with me.” Quinn says urgently, before making a mad dash into the woods, with the two agents closely behind her. The blond secretly hoped that they would get there in time, before it was too late again.

 

 

* * *

 

Rachel, who still held the two men at gun point, turned around to see what in the world Shelby could possibly be doing. There's no way it would have taken her this long to call Agent Fabray.

 

“Shelby!” Rachel shouts, briefly turning her head away from the men. “Shelby, where is Quinn?”

 

Shelby slowly takes a step forward as much as she could with Dr.Burns squeezing her to his chest with a gun leveled to her head. Rachel immediately turns around and aims her gun at the anthropologist.

 

“Sorry love.” Dr.Burn says darkly, as he shoves the gun into Shelby's temple. “But I'm afraid Dr.Corcoran can't answer right now. Drop the gun, now.” He takes the safety off the gun and squeezes the trigger a little more. “Or she dies.”

 

“I knew there was a reason I blocked you out of my memory.” Shelby mutters, suddenly not finding the doctor as attractive as she once had. She flinches when his arm squeezes her neck tighter.

 

Rachel points her gun back towards the men, as a warning, before turning it back to Dr.Burns. The doctor squeezes the trigger more, preparing to pull it once and for all.

 

“Last time I ask!” he yells at her, digging the gun deeper into the medical examiner. “Drop it or your mum dies. It's your choice.”

 

Seeing her daughter's gun shake slightly, Shelby looks at her with narrowed eyes and a stern expression.

 

“Shoot him, Rachel.” Shelby orders her softly, trying to give the younger brunette the confidence she would need to kill him, even if that meant Rachel would be killing her by proxy. “He'll only kill us both .”

 

“And those weapons?” Rachel asks as she lowers her gun, surrendering to the doctor's will. She figured it wouldn't be worth it to gamble on her mother's life, when the brunette has something else planned for the unsuspecting doctor. “Is that why you killed that poor Staff Sergeant?”

 

Dr. Burns grins menacingly at her, seeing no point in denying any of it now. It's not like the young brunette was going to live to tell that infernal blond boss of hers anyway.

 

“He found Oxbow's casket on the map.” Dr.Burns says smugly. “He actually wanted to turn them over to a museum.”

 

“Only mistake we made was killing him before we got a hold of the map.” he finishes coldly.

 

Rachel looks at the doctor with as much contempt as she could muster up. The lengths that people will go for their greed wasn't something that surprised her in the least. She had seen enough of it on the job and at every function that her father would force her to go to for Mossad. But it still amazed her that Dr.Burns could willingly watch listen to a man claw through his casket after being buried alive, without thinking twice about it. And to think her mother was this close to dating a man like this.

 

Rachel finally sets her gun to the ground with one of her hands up to the doctor. She also discreetly reaches into her pants leg and unhooks her spare black knife from Mossad from her holster.

 

“Now you two-” Dr.Burns says as he shoves the gun into Shelby once more. “will be the unfortunate victims of scavengers.

 

Before he can pull the trigger, Rachel yanks out her knife and quickly tosses it into the direction of the rouge doctor, hoping that it would hit its intended target.

 

As the knife lands into the rogue doctor's arm, his gun goes off around the same time.

 

 

* * *

 

Quinn, Santana and Puck reach the cemetery, with their guns drawn, just as they reach the cemetery, the sound of a gunshot pushes them onward. The three run through the entrance of the cemetery urgently and past the headstones.

 

Quinn and Puck were the first to arrive at the scene, followed by Santana. They stop dead in their tracks at the site before them.

 

They see the body of Dr.Burns, with his eyes wide open and a big knife gash plunged into his chest. Shelby was on his side, examining the wound, looks up at the three approaching agents and smiles. The senior agent looks at the medical examiner questioningly.

 

“Rachel's aim has certainly gotten a lot better.” Shelby says as she points towards the left side of his chest. “I'll have to do a through autopsy when we get back of course, but based on my estimations, it looks like she pierced the knife straight through his heart.”

 

“Would you believe that it was my first time being able to do that?” Rachel asks smugly, as she turns her head to face her new boss with a wink and smirk.

 

Quinn shakes her head, trying her best to hide her smile.

 

“Eh, I can believe it, Berry.” Quinn says as she steps away from Burn's body and walks towards the former Mossad agent.

 

Whatever doubts the senior agent may have had about the brunette in front of her, have evaporated.As far as Quinn is concerned, Rachel has proven that she belongs on her team. She still thinks the new probie has a long way to go, as far as her investigative skills are concerned. Quinn is confident that Rachel will learn fast and maybe even give the other three agents a run for their money.

 

When the blond agent approaches the former Mossad operative, the brunette turns to face her new boss for a moment.

 

“Where did the rest of the team go, Agent Fabray?” Rachel asks curiously.

 

“Evans is back at the camp, keeping an eye on Kearns.” Quinn replies with a small smile. She turns to her sides to find that Agents Puckerman and Lopez were nowhere near her anymore. “Puckerman and Lopez were right behind me, but I guess they got lost along the way.”

 

Rachel and Quinn laugh a little at the senior agent's joke. The blond agent in charge reaches out and rubs Rachel's shoulder in silent congratulations and dropped it when they approached the two men. Rachel decided to take whatever she could get from the blond because at least that meant she was trying. In her brief interactions with the senior agent, Rachel had picked up on the fact that expressing any meaningful emotion had been hard for her new boss. The blond patting her on the back was the closest thing that the junior agent would get to a 'great job'.

 

Rachel looks down and smiles to herself as she places her cuffs on the older man and lifts him off of the ground when she's done,watching carefully as her boss did the same.

 

When they were done, the two agents turn around to see Puckerman and Lopez frozen in place, on both sides of Dr.Burn's body. They were gaping at the damage that their new team member had caused in a manner of a few seconds with shock and astonishment.

 

Puckerman felt a couple of beads of sweat dripping off of his forehead, thinking about Rachel and Rachel throwing knives. He had never met a woman, outside of the boss, who could throw a knife the way that the former Mossad agent could. For the first time ever, Noah Puckerman thought that he may be a little bit in love with Rachel.

 

Santana on the other hand, looked on in horror. She was fighting a long battle with herself to conceal the fact that she was impressed with Berry's ability to take out three guys in one swoop. At the same time, she was a bit terrified herself, thinking about all the things that she has done since her arrival to get on the other brunette's bad side.

 

She shakes her head of any thoughts of what Berry may or may not do to her with that knife, thinking that she is just being paranoid. The junior agent snaps out of her trance the moment the senior agent and new probie approach with their prisoners.

 

She walks up to Puckerman and nudges him lightly, keeping his eyes off of the new agent. He looks down at the other junior agent with a pointed glare.

 

“Remind me not to piss of the Israeli-” Santana whispers to him, thinking that no one else can hear them. “as _much_ anymore.”

 

Agent Fabray turns around and glances at Agent Lopez.

 

“Oh Lopez, you have _no_ idea.” Quinn says with a smirk. At the same time, Rachel turns around and makes eye contact with the junior agent, glares hard at the nervous agent for a moment before winking innocently at her when she was done. It was enough to scare off the junior agent for the time being, at least until Santana realizes that she would never through her knife at the junior agent, no matter how much the other brunette pisses her off.

 

The four agents and the medical examiner, make their way out of the cemetery, with their prisoners back to the base camp. In about an hour or so, Mike Chang and a CSI team would come in and collect the evidence involving Dr.Burn's death.

 

But as far as Quinn was concerned, her team had done their jobs. Staff Sergeant Sorrow's killer was dead, the accomplices were in their custody and the weapons that they stole would be heading to their new home at the Smithsonian. As soon as they got back to the Naval Yard, she would let her team go home early and let them have a three day weekend, thinking that they more than deserved the time off. The paperwork for this case could wait until they got back on Monday.

 

The senior agent is also going to insist on Rachel riding with her back to the yard, so that she could give the new agent the little key that she had on her keyring that once belonged to Dani's desk. As hard as it was going to be, the senior agent realized that it was time for her and the team to let Dani go. The best way to honor her wife's memory is by making Rachel feel as welcomed onto the team now that she knows what the brunette is capable of.

 

It was what Dani would have wanted her to do if she were still here and the senior agent takes a small comfort in that.

 

* * *

 

**4:30 pm**

**Fabray residence**

 

 

Quinn was laying on her couch re-reading her well worn copy _Crime and Punishment,_ with Jethro laying faithfully near the arm of her couch. Within the last week or so, the german shepard has stop sleeping by the door and seemed to be acting like his old self again. The senior agent figured that now that she had gone back to work, Jethro had begun the process of accepting that Dani was not coming back. When she came back from the office a couple of hours ago after her briefing with Jesse, Quinn found that one of the couch pillows had been torn to shreds and both of his bowels were empty. She smiled a little at the fact that her pup was coming back around again.

 

The senior agent changed out of her work clothes and into a black pair of yoga pants and her USMC grey shirt, with her reading glasses tucked neatly on top of her blond mane. She went to her library, picked out the tattered book and flopped back onto the couch. The blond had no intention of moving unless she had to and so far, she had been successful in her quest.

 

Quinn's hand hung low and Jethro raised his head slightly to lick it for a minute.

 

The sound of the doorbell ringing caused Jethro to sit up right in alert and rushed towards the door. Quinn sighs sadly at the prospect of her lazy afternoon coming to an abrupt end. The doorbell rings a second time and the senior agent decides to finally get up off the couch and scowl her intruder away.

 

When she reaches the door, Quinn shoves Jethro away from it lightly and undoes the locks.

 

She opens the door quickly, expecting to find her best friend and new babysitter. But to Quinn's surprise, it was Rachel. The last time she had seen the brunette, Quinn remembers telling her that she did not want to see her until Monday morning. The senior agent narrows her eyes at the brunette, who is smiling brightly at her, thankful that the other members on her team had a vague idea of where she lived.

 

The new agent had the same idea that she had to change into something comfortable. She was wearing black short shorts that showcased the brunette's lovely tanned, long legs that go on for miles. Rachel was also wearing a grey and purple 'NYU' t-shirt and a pair of ray bans that were clipped onto her shirt. The brunette was also cradling a thick sketchbook on top of a small box that she was carrying in her arms.

 

“Good afternoon, Agent Fabray.” Rachel said brightly.

 

“I thought I said that I didn't want to see you until Monday?” Quinn asks rhetorically. “I also remember telling you that it was Quinn when I'm at home.”

 

Blushing a little, Rachel looks down slightly at the mistake. “My apologies, Quinn. I remember you saying that, but I really wanted to talk to you about something. I tried to catch you in the bullpen after we came back from Manassas but by the time I got back from Human Resources about my desk and-”

 

Shaking her head at the new probie, Quinn chuckles a little and gives her a reassuring smile.

 

“Is there a reason why you're here, Berry?” Quinn asks, crossing her arms over herself. “Or do you need a few minutes out here by yourself to think about it?”

 

“Yes there was, Quinn.” Rachel says a bit nervously. “ I wanted to thank you for everything this week. For allowing me on your team and for giving me a chance to show you that I belong there.Even though we've had our disagreements and I didn't always understand why you were treating me the way that you were at first, but now I do. And I wanted to thank you for it.”

 

Quinn shrugs her shoulders and nods. “It's really not that big of deal, Rachel. The work that you've done during this case was all you and had nothing to do with me. You _earned_ your spot on the team, simple as that.”

 

“It was a big deal to me Quinn.” Rachel tells her. “I know that you didn't want me on your team and that you wanted Jesse to place me on someone else's team.”

 

“That's not entirely true-” the senior agent begins to say. But when she looks over at the new agent, who had one of her eyebrows raised at her, daring the senior agent to continue on with the lie.

 

Quinn sighs, running her hand through her hair instead.

 

“Okay, I may have had one or two reservations about you being on the team.” Quinn says honestly. “To be honest, those reservations are still there. But for the most part, I was wrong and St.James was right for once. You have the potential to be a great agent if you're working under the right person. I know now, that you're a good fit for this team and if you felt like you weren't, it was my mistake.”

 

Rachel smiles and chuckles at the blond's half assed apology.

 

“Were you trying to apologize to me, Agent Fabray?” Rachel teases.

 

Quinn scowls a little at Rachel's implication, crossing her arms.

 

“Rule number six-” Quinn starts but is interrupted by the brunette.

 

“I know, I know. You don't apologize because its a sign of weakness.” Rachel paraphrases the senior agent's rule. “Are you ever going to teach me the rest of you 'rules' Instead of repeating number six to me over and over again?”

 

“I only repeat a rule if it bares repeating. Besides, Puck doesn't even know all of my rules yet and he's been at NCIS for ten years.” Quinn states with a grin. “Do you really think I'm going to spend my free afternoon explaining each and every rule to you if I haven't even told my second in command all of them yet?”

 

“I'd like to think that Noah lacks my skills persuasive abilities.” Rachel says flirtatiously biting her bottom lip a little. “Otherwise, I would have broken you a long time ago, Quinn.”

 

It takes a moment for her to realize what she's done and when she does, Rachel chastises herself for acting like a high school girl with a crush around her boss. She looks up at Quinn to gage the senior agent's reaction to what she just said. From the looks of it though, the senior agent must either be a really good poker player or she hadn't picked up on her blatant flirting.

 

“I'm sure you would have, Berry. “Quinn says sarcastically. “Not that I haven't enjoyed whatever it is we are doing here, but I have an afternoon of doing nothing to continue on with. Before I spend tomorrow and Sunday working on my boat while drinking. Is there anything else you need from me or are you done?”

 

Rachel looks down at the sketchbook and the box in her arms and regains her composure.

 

“I took the liberty of going through Agent McKenzie's desk drawers in order to prepare for the next work week.” Rachel says nervously, hoping that she hasn't upset Quinn with the invasion of privacy.

 

The new agent had waited until she knew everyone on the team had left for the day, not wanting to avoid conflict with the others at all cost.

 

Not receiving a response from the senior agent, Rachel continues on with her explanation.

 

“I didn't go through anything, I just took everything that I saw and placed it in the empty box that I found in the break room. I didn't throw anything out at all because it wasn't my place to do so.But everything that she had in those drawers and the pictures on her wall are in there as she had them.”

 

Rachel then hands the box over to Quinn, taking the sketchbook off of it. The blond agent bends over and sets the box down by the inside entrance of the door.

 

“When I was cleaning out the last of the big drawer though, I found this.” Rachel says sadly and then places the sketchbook in Quinn's hands carefully. “I thought that Danielle may have wanted you to have this.”

 

Quinn swallows the lump in her throat as she touches the last link that she had to her wife. The senior agent opens up the sketchbook to find black and white portraitures of everyone on the team. Puck was stretched out on his desk, grinning while he was talking on the phone. The next page was of Sam, pouting at her soaking wet after chasing a potential suspect through a car wash. Santana was picking at her nails from her desk and throwing a paper ball in mid air. Tina was wearing the little surgical mask dinosaur that Dani had drawn for her one of the times she was in the lab. There was a picture of Shelby, who was leaned over the table, in mid conversation with one of her 'patients'. Then there was a portrait of herself, from the first time that they met on Airforce one.

 

When she got to the last sketch of the book, Quinn visibly flinched. It was dated six weeks before her death and it was a portrait drawing of herself, Dani and Jethro cuddled together on the couch. There is an inscription, within Dani's perfect script that said 'Our growing family'. The senior agent found herself shutting the sketchbook immediately and looking up at Rachel with her teary yet grateful eyes.

 

“Thank you, Rachel.” Quinn says while rubbing the spine of the sketchbook. “This means a lot to me.”

 

The new agent nods as she watches the blond examine the sketchbook.A part of Rachel felt miserable every time she could see her stoic boss obviously missing her wife, knowing that she was partially responsible for them being apart. She will spend the rest of her life making it up to the blond for her willful ignorance about her former boyfriend's activities, but in Rachel's eyes, what she does will never be enough.

 

Rachel smiles to herself as she thinks of the perfect way to start making it up to the blond.

 

“Would you like to come over to dinner tomorrow?” Rachel blurts out, before she has a chance to really think about it as the senior agent looks at her questioningly.

 

“My father, Leroy, has been dying to get you over to my place for dinner.” Rachel stutters a little. “ I think he likes you more than he likes me sometimes.” Rachel laughs lightly at her own joke. “It would really mean a lot to him, and to me, if you would join us for dinner tomorrow. You could even invite Director St. James if you feel more comfortable with that.”

 

The senior agent regards Rachel for a few moments, carefully weighing her options. Even though she wasn't in the mood to socialize with anyone and would be perfectly satisfied with her left over Thai take out that she was going to order tonight, seeing Rachel's big, brown eyes begging her to have dinner with her father made her reconsider that. This would be a good opportunity for her to get to know Rachel outside of what was on her resume and get to know her as a person.

 

“I'll take you up on your offer Berry.” Quinn says with a hesitant smile. “As long as it'll get you off of my property for the rest of the afternoon.”

 

The new agent jumps a little and squeaks excitedly nodding at what the senior agent is saying.

 

“Thank you Quinn.” Rachel says gratefully. “I promise you won't regret it. My father should have everything ready by seven tomorrow and you don't have to bring anything if you don't want to.”

 

_I highly doubt that, Berry._

 

“I'll see you at seven Berry, with a nice vintage bottle of wine.” Quinn says with a smile as she closes the door gently.

 

The new agent walks away, more excited than she had been when she arrived. Agent Fabray was coming to her house for dinner to meet her father. The brunette's eyes suddenly widen as she begins to make a laundry list of all the things that she has to do to prepare for her boss' visit to her home. As she started sprinting back to her home, Rachel felt a knot begin to grow in the pit of her stomach and started to think about all the things that could go wrong with this dinner, not including the embarrassing stories papa Leroy would feel obligated to tell the senior agent.

 

Suddenly, dinner with Quinn didn't sound as exciting as she thought it would be.

 

 

 


	16. Dinner at the Berry's

 

Rachel kneels down in the corner of her kitchen island, in her short black dress with one black Jimmy Choo heal on her right foot. She was waiting for her obnoxiously, hyperactive and naked two year old to waddle around the corner again. While she kept an eye on the three steaks, two regular and one tofu that were being cooked in separate pans, that were simmering in the oven through her peripheral vision.

 

Ever since Beth and her father Leroy came back from their trip to the zoo, the two year old has not been bouncing all over the walls with energy. She cursed her father under her breath, especially at the moment, for allowing her to eat her weekly sugar allotment two hours before they were to have dinner with Agent Fabray. To say that Rachel has been on edge since her spontaneous invitation to the senior agent, would be an understatement. She was out right terrified of the senior agent coming over to her place to have dinner with her father and her daughter, who picked tonight of all nights, to begin her terrible two phase. She didn't want to scare the senior agent off from her outside the field more than she had already in the field.

 

Rachel needed Quinn's approval of her. She wanted the senior agent to see who she was outside of work and the occasional polite hellos they've exchanged ever since that night with Brody. The former liaison wanted the senior agent to see Rachel the person and maybe warm up to her with time. She couldn't explain it, but Rachel felt drawn to the senior agent and saw great potential for a friendship outside of the bull pen if the agent just got to know her. That is why she needed this dinner to be as pleasant

 

At the same time, Rachel had a feeling that the opposite was going to happen. The blond agent in charge would probably start looking for a new home in another neighborhood and convince Jesse to transfer out of her team by the time this dinner was over. If Beth's hyperactivity and possible tantrums didn't drive her new employer away, then she was sure it would be her father's incessant need to interrogate every person that comes into her life.

 

Rachel peaks around the corner to see a mop top of curly brunette hair quickly waddling a few feet away from her. She turns her entire body in the direction of the toddler and has her hands positioned on the ground, ready to pounce the moment her daughter was close enough. As soon as two tiny, bare feet make their way around the first corner of the island, Rachel leaps out of her corner and quickly grabs the two and a half year old and gathers her into her arms.

 

Beth begins squealing and wiggling within her mother's arms, fighting the brunette with every step they took. Rachel manages to settle her onto her hip and starts patting the stubborn little girl on the back.

 

“Sorry my little terror, but you must wear clothes for dinner tonight.” Rachel coos soothingly as she rubs the toddler's stomach, trying to calm the little girl down, who wasn't having it all all. “Mommy's very hard to read boss is coming over to visit us and we don't want to give her a reason to get mommy fired now do we?”

 

“Mommy!” Beth whines, hoping that there was a different result. When it didn't work, the two year old began kicking and flailing her arms, as much as her mother's grasp would allow. Rachel did not give into the two year old's temper tantrum, even though the kicks in her side were starting to hurt. She kept her daughter in a near vice grip until they entered the little girl's room.

 

The room itself was not as big as her mother's room, but there was plenty of space for the two year old to move around freely in. The room was painted canary yellow wall to wall, and had every gender neutral toys that Rachel and Leroy could carry in the basket from Toys R' Us. The varnished light brown wood crib served as the centerpiece of the room with her changing table on the left side of the wall, near the closet.

 

Rachel stands the fussy Beth down into the crib and goes over to her dresser to pick an outfit for the two year old to wear for dinner tonight. She pulls out a yellow sundress with white polka dots and sets it on the table to flatten out the wrinkles. When she's done, Rachel smiles and thinks about how adorable Beth was going to be in this dress. She thinks about pulling out the white headband to top it off with.

 

She doesn't hear Leroy's approaching footsteps, who leans up against the doorway and crosses his arms with a fond grin on his face. He watches as the eyes of his two year old granddaughter squint in determination as she looks all around her little prison. He couldn't decide if it was the most sinster thing he's ever seen or if it was just outright adorable. If Beth were anything like her mother and other grandfather Hiram, the two year old was probably processing multiple escape routes through her childlike mind to see which one is the best option for escape. The little girl then turns her head quickly to see that her mother is getting ready to turn around.

 

The next thing Leroy sees is the toddler putting her hands on the crib and lifting herself up to the top of the top of the crib's bar until her tiny body is completely out of her prison. He shakes his head and smiles, thinking that another Berry family member will yet again have a bright future in law enforcement.

 

He watches as Beth drops from the crib and he nearly breaks off into a sprint into the next room but stops when he sees his granddaughter land gracefully onto the floor.

 

Rachel chooses that moment to turn around smiling adoringly at Beth's outfit. She looks down at the floor and her smile drops when she sees the two year old look up at her and smile.

 

“Beth!” Rachel gasps surprisingly. “How in Barbra's name did you get down there, young lady?”

 

Before Rachel could say anything else, Beth runs away from her in a mad dash towards her bedroom door.

 

“Elizabeth Fanny Berry!” Rachel shouts as drops the dress and runs right behind her daughter, who keeps slipping through the former Mossad agent's grip, causing her stumble a little on the rug.. What made it worse for Rachel is when her daughter starts giggling at her misfortune.

 

Beth's giggles come to a complete halt when she crashes face first into Leroy's black pants leg. The toddler lifts her head and tilts it a little to get a good look at the object currently blocking her great escape and sees that it is her grandfather.

 

She grins at Leroy and lifts her arms up, signaling him to pick her up. He smiles tenderly at her and laughs, giving into his granddaughter's request, knowing that like her mother, he wouldn't be able to deny her anything. He lifts her in the air and his smile grows as the toddler giggles and stretches her arms out like Superman.

 

“Are you giving mommy another ulcer, my little exhibitionist?” Leroy coos as he kisses her cheek.

 

Beth giggles and nods her head enthusiastically, causing a few light brown, wavy strands of hair to fall into her face. She ducks her head into the crook of his neck and claps.

 

“Daddy!” Rachel growls pointing a finger in her father's direction. “Don't you dare coddle her. You're encouraging her misbehavior!”

 

Leroy chuckles and feels his granddaughter burrow her head into his shoulder blade.

 

“Aw Rachie, I don't think she meant to do it on purpose.” Leroy turns his head and kisses the top of his granddaughter's loose curls. “Isn't that right my little star. And if my memory serves correct, you were a bit of an exhibitionist escape artist too. You should be grateful that she isn't at an age where she can through your makeup and end up head to toe in makeup like you did with Shelby's.

 

The toddler nods into his shoulder and turns to face her mother with a pout. Rachel sighs and shakes her head at the two of them.

 

“That was the only time that I did that and I was five.” Rachel says defensively. “After Shelby told me gave me a detailed list of the toxins found in

 

“That was the day you had me dictate your first strongly written letter to a major corporation.” Leroy finishes smiling fondly at the memory.

 

Rachel had made him look up the address for the makeup company's headquarters and type the letter while Shelby made sure they had the chemical components spelled correctly. The five year old put it in the mail the next day and received a reply six weeks later. They applauded her passion at such a young age and assured her that they would look into the matter, which she was sure they never got around to investigating the matter, but they did send her a nice little tote bag with the company's name on it.

 

The former Mossad agent closes her eyes and rubs at her temples and the amused look in Leroy's brown eyes disappears and morphs into concern.

 

“Sweetheart, what's really going on? Why are you stressing yourself out over this?” Leroy asks gently as he takes a couple of step towards her. “It's just dinner with your boss-”

 

“Yeah daddy, it's dinner with my boss.” Rachel says sarcastically. “ It just so happens that said boss possibly wants to murder me in my sleep!” _Which to be fair, Quinn has very sensible reasons for hating her._ Rachel thinks to herself.

 

“Rachel, I'm sure that's not true.” Leroy says trying to comfort her only to have Rachel shake her head and turn away from him.

 

“ I investigate and write dossiers on her team for Mossad. Which then caused a violent sociopath to kill a member on her team, who she happens to be married to-” Rachel says as she strides over to Beth's changing table. When she gets there, she picks up the toddler's dress and straightens out on the table.

 

“You were only following orders. You couldn't have guessed any of that would have-”

 

“Then I accuse her of letting her personal disdain for Brody, cloud her judgement while _he_ played me like one of his pawns -” Rachel continues on, ignoring Leroy. She then uses her hands to smooth out the wrinkles on the dress. The former Mossad liaison then starts to press down on the dress and flatten it more “to make things worse, Jesse puts me on her team, knowing that her team can't stand me and that Agent Fabray obviously does _not_ want me anywhere near her or her team. Therefore making her job harder than it has to be. Why he thought that idiotic idea would work, I have no idea.”

 

She roughly smooths out the edge of Beth's dress and pounds it into the table. “The icing on top of the cake of reasons why Agent Quinn Fabray would hate my guts is when I-”

 

The former liaison pauses her rant mid sentences and the dress is forgotten. Her eyes widen and her hands start to shake as she realizes what she almost lets slip.

 

Leroy narrows his eyes and stares at her quizzically. “When you what, sweetheart?

 

She closes her eyes and feels her breathing pick up a little and her heart racing

Rachel and Leroy have an open and honest relationship. Her papa was the first person she went to after her first kiss with Jeremy at the seventh grade dance. He held her hand when she made the stupid in hindsight decision to get a belly piercing and tattoo the night after she graduated high school. Leroy was the first person she came out to as bisexual after the girl in her freshmen acting class had broken her heart and she needed to vent to someone outside of her NYU friends. He was the first person she told about her relationship with Brody and pregnancy a few years later.

 

But the night Rachel called Leroy in tears to tell him about Brody's death and how it happened, had been the first time she had ever broken their honesty policy. For some reason, Rachel did not want her papa Leroy to know that she was the one who put the bullet between Brody's eyes that took his life in order to protect someone that she shouldn't have been protecting in the first place.

 

Rachel knew that if she told him the truth, he would understand why she did it and that he would have been more disappointed in her if she hadn't killed Brody before he had the opportunity to kill Quinn.

He was a former federal agent himself, so out of all people he would understand why she did what she did and be proud of her for it. But for some reason, the former liaison just couldn't tell him the truth about what happened.

 

Instead, Rachel told him the well crafted lie that they would tell NCIS and Mossad, that Brody had broken into Agent Fabray's basement with the intent to kill her and fortunately the senior agent was there to shoot him before he could shoot either Agent Fabray or herself. Leroy had not questioned her story at the time in the slightest and promised to be in DC the next morning.

 

Sometimes, he'll try to get her to talk about what happened that afternoon in his own subtle way and so far, Rachel's managed to deflect all of his inquires. With Agent Fabray coming over and knowing how her father methods of gathering information on other people, Rachel's afraid that she won't be able to stop him from interrogating Agent Fabray about what happened. The brunette had no illusions that part of her father's insistence on wanting to have Quinn there was to interrogate her about what went on in that basement.

 

She wasn't worried about the senior agent spilling her secret as much as she was worried about her being able to hold her composure with Quinn and her father being in the same room. Rachel was afraid that in her guilt ridden state, she would spill everything that had happened with Brody and how she was responsible for Agent McKenzie's death.

 

The former Mossad liaison had accepted the fact that she killed Brody and rationalized it with the fact that he had taken countless lives and would have taken more if he had not been stopped that day. She can deal with the periodic nightmares where Brody taunts her about using her and their daughter as gambits for his real agenda. The way the former liaison saw it, she was getting off pretty easy seeing as she facilitated all of Brody's actions.

 

What Rachel couldn't deal with is seeing the hurt that she knows will be swimming through her father's eyes when he realizes that his daughter did not trust him enough to tell him the whole truth about Brody. How she'll refused to let him help, her more than he already has, to cope with all that has happened to her and Beth.

 

Rachel is pulled out of her thoughts when she feels a soft hand grip her bicep.

 

“Honey, why don't you let me take care of Beth and getting her ready.” Leroy offers with a comforting smile. “Since I've got the little terror in my arms already and she looks like she wants to spend the next few days eating nothing but her vegetable mush.” Beth cradles her head into her grandfather's shoulder and yawns as he says this. “It should be easy getting her into her clothes now.”

 

“Thanks dad.” she says softly, wiping the couple of stray tears that had fallen down her face.

 

Leroy leans down and kisses the top of her head. “Don't thank me just yet Rach. We still have to get through dinner with Agent Fabray first. If she hasn't fired you by the end of the night then you can thank me.”

 

Rachel glares at her father and walks away from her two troublemakers. “ You are so _incorrigible_ sometimes.”

 

“But you love me anyway Rachela.” the former agent laughs at his daughter's retreating figure, watching as she stomps her lone shoe foot and sighs.

 

When she's out of the room, Leroy turns to the toddler, whose tired eyes look at him as if she were in a daze.

 

“What are we going to do about your mama, little star?” Leroy whispers as he lays Beth down onto the changing table. He reaches underneath the table and grabs a diaper. “Do you think there is something going on with mommy that she's not telling us about?”

 

The two year old yawns and shrugs her tiny shoulders. When Leroy raises her legs up to put the diaper on, her grandfather becomes an afterthought as she reaches up and becomes distracted by her toes.

 

* * *

 

 

 

Quinn stands outside of the door of the Berry home, her pointer finger fiddling with the label of the chilled bottle of vintage Syrah in her hands. Wearing a simple sequin print dress and navy blue cardigan with her brown buckled boots, the senior agent has been standing there for the last ten minutes contemplating whether or not she should ring the doorbell.

 

It had been a long first week back for the senior agent and she was a little more worn out than she would usually be. Normally after a case, Quinn would usually stay until the later hours of the day to finish up paperwork so that she and the team could have the next day off. But for this case, the senior agent ended up coming in at eight o'clock this morning after only four hours of sleep and spent the better part of the day working through the team's paperwork. She hadn't left the building until ten minutes before six, after half of the other agents in the bullpen had gone home for the day.

 

Her day wasn't completely work oriented. Jesse had managed to steal her away for an hour for lunch though, insisting that they try the new Thai place that had opened a couple of blocks away from the Naval Yard. They caught up with one another, with Jesse telling her animatedly about his second date with the model he took with him to his dinner meeting with CBS. They barely talked about anything relating to work or how she was doing, which the senior agent thought it was a nice change of pace. Their lunch ended when he received a call from MTAC about one of NCIS' operations overseas.

 

The senior agent had honestly forgotten about her dinner with Berry until she received a text from the new probie asking her if she would be okay with having steak for dinner.

 

Quinn had wanted to text Berry to tell her that something came up and she would not be able to make it. She wanted to go home, slip into her Yale sweatshirt and shorts and drink her whiskey and eat the rest of her lunch with Jethro at her feet, hoping to catch a few scraps of her food in his mouth. She wasn't feeling particularly sociable or that she would be a good dinner guest for Rachel and her dad.

 

But she saw how excited the way Rachel looked when she agreed to come over for dinner. And the fact that Rachel was preparing a meal for her that she would never eat in order to accommodate her, Quinn found that she couldn't back out after all that Berry was doing. Plus, this would give her a chance to get a better read on her new probationary agent outside of what's she seen or read in her dossier so far.

 

So Quinn drove home and took a couple of minutes to slip out of her work clothes and greet Jethro. Then she slipped on her clothes for dinner ad then rushed down to her and Dani's miniature wine rack in the basement. The senior agent found one of the last bottles of the vintage Syrah, a gift from Dani's sister when she visited two Christmases ago and headed out the door.

 

The senior agent breathes in deeply and raises her hand to knock on the door, but it opens before she has the opportunity to.

 

Green eyes widen in shock at the stern looking man who answers the door.

 

“U-um Agent Berry?” Quinn stutters out as her posture becomes straighter, feeling like a probie again for the first time in years. “Sir.”

 

When Agent Sylvester was still in charge, she would occasionally bring in her old colleague from the New York NCIS office Leroy Berry, to consult on cases with them. Most of the time, Agent Berry was there to act as another drill sergeant to keep Sylvester's probies in line. For some reason, Leroy always made it a little more hellish when he was alone with she and Jesse. Quinn never understood the reason why since she had never met or had contact with the man until Sylvester introduced them. She got her answer one night while they were on a stakeout, when Jesse confessed that the reason Agent Berry may hate them is because he dated his daughter during his junior year at NYU and the breakup wasn't pretty. She barely remembers the rest of the shift, but the senior agent did remember that she tried to run Jesse over with their car when it was over.

 

The first time she had heard the name Berry, Quinn had thought that it sounded familiar. But she never would have guessed that Rachel was related to _that_ Agent Berry.

 

The senior agent's starting to think that maybe running wasn't such a bad idea after all.

 

Leroy checks her out and looks at Sue's former probationary agent. When Rachel had mentioned her new boss' name before, he thought that the name sounded familiar. But seeing the senior agent, who had apparently cut her hair since the last time he saw her, it is all coming back to him now.

 

Her eyes look like they are telling her to run for the hills, but the rest of body refuses to let her move or back down. So far, he's impressed with what he sees. Its no wonder Sue, who never has a nice thing to say about anybody most of the time, spoke so highly of her and ultimately chose her to lead her team after her retirement.

 

As impressed as he is with the agent in charge in front of him, he wouldn't be himself if he didn't have a little fun messing with her a bit before Rachel comes downstairs.

 

So he does.

 

“Fabray.” Leroy says authoritatively. “It's been a long time. What can I do for you?”

 

“Um sir, I-I'm here to see-”

 

“Let me guess, the director of NCIS finally came to their senses and realized their mistake in hiring an inexperienced probie and now you're trolling for a new job?”

 

Breaking out of her daze, Quinn glares at the former agent before her, not liking the way that he was talking to her. He may have been her elder and if he were still at the agency, she may have been answering to him, but she was not going to let Leroy Berry denigrate all of her hard work, no matter who he is.

 

“No sir, not at all.” Quinn snaps, returning the former NCIS agent's glare with a steely one of her own. She takes a step forward and refuses to back down from Leroy's glare. “I'm here to see your daughter, Rachel Berry.”

 

“Is that so-” Leroy begins but is cut off by the sound of the staccato clicking of heels on the floor, coming from the hallway.

 

“Daddy!” Rachel shouts as she approaches the doorway with Beth gripping her hand behind her. She pushes past her father into the doorway and swats her father on his chest. “Are you trying to get me fired? She hasn't even gotten to the table yet and you're already harassing her.”

 

Leroy chuckles and holds his hands up in surrender. “I'm sorry honey, I couldn't help myself.” He then turns to the confused senior agent and whispers conspiratorially and winks at her.

 

“When you've worked with Sue Sylvester for years, it's nearly impossible not to pick up a couple of her bad habits here and there. Isn't that right Fabray?”

 

Quinn looks at the Berry family and lets her shoulders slump a little. She nods in agreement with Agent Berry and chuckles. “He's not wrong. You just have to make sure you don't pick up the wrong ones.”

 

Leroy laughs loudly and takes a step forward, holding his hand out for the senior agent, remembering that the blond was not a hugging person, and she takes it. “It's good to see you again Quinn.”

 

“It's nice to see you again, Agent Berry.” Quinn says politely.

 

Leroy releases her hand and gazes at her pointedly. “At the office it may be Agent Berry, but at home, you can call me Leroy.”

 

The senior agent looks down with a hint of a blush on her cheeks. “I'll try to remember that sir-” the eldest Berry gives her a look and she readily corrects her mistake. “I mean Leroy.”

 

Rachel gawks at the two of them in surprise and decides to make her presence known to the two of them. “Again? The two of you know each other?”

 

“We go way back Rachel.” Leroy answers. “I worked with her old boss, Sue, for years in New York before the powers that be went nuts and decided to give her her own team. Whenever she came across a case that she had issues solving-”

 

“Something that Sylvester will never admit to.” Quinn adds chuckling.

 

“She would rather swallow a grenade than admit being fallible.” Leroy said laughing. “Anyway, she would call me up and I would go down to DC to help her out. I've met agent in charge Quinn Fabray several times during my consultations with Sylvester.”

 

“Jesse and I were his favorite punching bags.” Quinn tells Rachel, who shakes her head unsurprisingly at her father.

 

“I think Jesse may still be afraid to be alone in a room with your dad, after everything he's put him through.”

 

“Daddy, you didn't-” Rachel says as she swats her father again. “After I specifically said time and time again that the Jesse thing was no big deal!”

 

“Oh look, Quinn's brought some Tahbilk Shiraz.” Leroy says trying to change the subject. “Thank you Quinn, that's very thoughtful of you.” He takes the bottle of wine out of her hands hastily and starts to head back inside. “I'll just go inside and get everything ready for dinner. You three can just stay out here for a minute and I'll call you when everything's ready.”

 

Before Rachel could get in another word, Leroy disappears inside of the house, leaving the three of them alone.

 

Quinn laughs at the retreating figure as Rachel places a hand on the bridge of her nose.

 

“I apologize for what he did to you and Jesse back then.” Rachel says apologetically. “Had I known he was doing any of that, I would have bound, gagged and sent him in a crate in the middle of the Indian Ocean.”

 

“Relax Berry, it's okay.” Quinn shrugs. “You're dad's actually pretty cool when he's not being a drill sergeant.”

 

Quinn takes a moment to really look at Rachel, wondering why the former Mossad agent was nearly as tall as she was. The former Mossad agent was wearing a form fitting black dress that cut off way above the knee, showcasing her long legs with a nice pair of heels. To top off her look, the former liaison had her hair straighten and bangs pushed off to the side. She looked absolutely stunning and suddenly made the senior agent feel as if she were under dressed for the night.

 

“You look fantastic Berr- I mean Rachel.” Quinn says quietly.

 

“Thank you Quinn.” Rachel says with a hint of a blush. “You don't look too bad yourself.”

 

When the blond was done looking at Rachel's outfit for the night, she finds herself gazing back into the liaison's eyes a little longer than necessary.In this light, Quinn could almost-.

 

_What the hell are you doing Fabray?_ The senior agent says to herself as she makes a show of clearing her throat.  _Pull yourself together._

 

Neither of the women see Beth move away from her mother's side and walk over to the senior agent. It wasn't until the blond feels someone pulling on her dress does she notice the little girl's presence.

 

Quinn and Rachel look down at the same time to see the two year old at the senior agent's feet.

 

“Beth sweetie, don't pull on Quinn's dress.” Rachel chastises her as she bends down to pick up the toddler.

 

“She fine, Rachel.” Quinn tells her nonchalantly.

 

Rachel looks at her boss again to see if she were sure and when the blond nods her head in the affirmative, the former liaison rises again.

 

Rachel was a bit concerned at how Beth was going to react to Quinn. The brunette knows that she can be temperamental when it comes to having people that weren't Hiram or herself around. An attribute that the brunette likes to think the two year old got from her father. There were many dates and outings with friends when Beth was around, that were prematurely canceled or rain checked for another day because something suddenly happened to the two year old. She hopes that Beth will make an exception for tonight

 

The senior agent bends down to get to the two year old's level, watching closely as the little girl regards her for a moment.

 

“Hi there.” Quinn says, smiling at the two year old for good measure.

 

Beth scrunches her eyebrows and her sparkling blue eyes scrutinize the senior agent harder than Sylvester had the day she recruited Quinn out of the Marines. A moment later, the two year old quirks one of her thin eyebrows at the stranger before her.

 

“My name is Quinn.” the senior agent says gently.

 

“Winn.” mutters quietly while observing the senior agent curiously and narrowing her eyes.

 

Quinn smile widens at the two year old, as she remembers that her niece Annabelle, couldn't say the 'Q' in her name at Beth's age until she was about three years old.

 

“That's right.” Quinn affirms. “My name's Winn. What's your name?”

 

The two year old points to chest. “Beth.”

 

The senior agent looks in awe of the two year old and shakes her head. “It's nice to meet you Beth.” she slowly holds her right hand out for the toddler to take. Beth looks at the hand before her apprehensively and then gazing over to her mother. When Rachel smiles at her, the two year old determines that this stranger is not as scary as she once thought.

 

The little brunette takes Quinn's pointer finger and shakes it in a wave like motion and then she drops the senior agent's had with a plop.

 

Rachel looked over at the pair stunned. Beth has never taken to anyone that she tries to introduce the two year old to, let alone stay around them long enough to get a hand shake from her daughter.

Normally, her company would try to introduce themselves, with some of them making the mistake of trying to hug her. Two seconds later, she's behind Rachel's leg and holding on for dear life or deliberately stomping on their foot before taking off.

 

For Quinn to get a handshake out the two year old, was more than Rachel could have hoped to happen.

 

Beth walks up to the senior agent's ear and covers her hand over it so no one else could see what was being said.

 

“Up!” Beth stage whispers. In case the senior agent didn't understand what she wanted, Beth raised her arms up in the air for full measure.

 

The senior agent laughs and picks the two year old up by her waist. They rise together as Rachel gawks at the site before her, not quite believing what she was seeing.

 

“Beth hates most people.” Rachel states. “How did you-”

 

“For one Berry, I'm not most people.” Quinn says as her upper lip quirks a little. “And two, I have a niece and nephew of my own, they're my sister's kids. Well they're preteens now but still.”

 

“Girls!” Leroy shouts from inside house. “Dinner's ready!”

 

“Well, uh, we better get inside then.” Rachel says nervously.

 

“Guess we should.” The senior agent agrees as she and Beth step inside of the house with Rachel right behind them. Beth starts to poke at the senior agent's cheek.

 

Rachel looks at the two of them with a small smile and her earlier anxieties about their dinner disappear. Maybe her dad was right and this wouldn't be too torturous after all.

 

 

* * *

 

Quinn sets her knife and fork down and leans back into the chair, feeling like she couldn't eat another bite as well as a little bit drunk from the wine.

 

As soon as Rachel and Quinn walked into the house, the intoxicating aromas of the steak filled her senses and she felt her mouth start to water. The steak sat perfectly on the plate, with its juices running all down the side. And the sides to go along with it were surprising delicious as well. Rachel made a vegetarian shepard's pie for herself, since she was the only one who wasn't eating steak. Tasting the food on the other hand, made her think that she had died and gone to heaven. She was happy that the three adult occupants of the table decided to save their conversation for when their meal was over because she doesn't think she would have been a good conversationalist.

 

The senior agent looks over to her peripheral vision and sees the two year old, who she has been attached at the hip to for most of the night, was making some sort of portrait out of what remained of her casserole and a little bit of the stringed beans that Rachel had put on her plate. Her face was scrunched in concentration and she had her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth as she played with the food. Quinn shakes her head and chuckles at the little girl's mini art project. Throughout the meal, the youngest Berry had pushed her spoon in her direction and tried to feed her some of her casserole. The senior agent had taken some of the casserole off of the spoon, causing the little girl to clap happily and then put the spoon back in her own mouth. She smiled a little at the little girl's antics and wondered if Beth had the kind of hold on her family was better or worse than the one she's had on the blond since she first saw the toddler.

 

Leroy sat up from his hunched position in the chair. The former agent looked like he was having a hard time keeping his head from falling over and throwing the rest of him off balance.

 

She then looks at Rachel, who looks at her with a slow smile spreading across her face. Quinn returns the smile and decides to speak up.

 

“Until today, I thought my dad was the only person who could cook a decent steak.” the senior agent begins playfully. “But tonight, you have given me a reason to completely disown my father now that I know someone who can cook steak better than he can.”

 

The three adults laugh and Rachel tilts her head down to hide her blush. “Thank you Quinn. I'm glad you liked it.”

 

“I've always said that Rachel should have become a chef if acting and Mossad hadn't worked out.” Leroy adds encouraging. “She could have won Top Chef five times by now and own a restaurant or two on every other corner of Manhattan by now.”

 

Quinn nods in agreement. “ I actually believe you when you say that Leroy. But how the hell did you cook steak that good? I thought you were a vegetarian?”

 

Rachel quirks her upper lip at the senior agent slightly. “Google and a couple of my own personal tweaks that I've added to the recipe. I was actually a vegan before I got pregnant with Beth. I tried to keep up my dietary habits but unfortunately for me, the only thing Beth wanted in the womb was bacon and anything that previously had a face. After the pregnancy, I found it too hard to give up cheese and eggs, so I became a vegetarian in order to accommodate my newfound love for it.”

 

“You going to tell me what the Rachel Berry's recipe is by any chance.” Quinn asks as she scoots her chair up to the table.

 

“Sorry Agent Fabray, but that's classified.” Rachel said playfully and winks at her boss. “But I guess you could try calling my father and then locking me up in an interrogation room and threaten to violate my civil rights again if you want it bad enough.”

 

The blond agent cringed a little at Rachel's recollection of their first real encounter with one another. She glances over to Leroy to see what his reaction might be, only to have see him shake his head.

 

“Sue's trick, I should have known. She was using that trick before the Patriot Act was ever conceived.” Leroy mutters. “Did she threaten to get you a one way plane ticket to Guantanamo for treason to?”

 

“I gave up Brody long before she had the chance.” Rachel replies playfully.

 

“Too bad. That part was always fun, watching the suspect break down thinking that we actually had the authority to sign off on a trip to Gitmo without the director putting our heads on a platter?”

 

“Haven't done that in a few months.” the senior agent says. “Not since our old director, Terri Schuester, and my wife were in charge of my security detail, even though she was also supposed to be under that detail, after Brody-” the senior stops when she realizes that she was mentioning the six foot elephant in the room. She tilts her head down and clears her throat, wanting to forget her statement entirely.

 

The three adults sit in silence in the tense air surrounding them. Quinn refused to look in Rachel or Leroy's direction to meet their gazes. Rachel preoccupies herself by removing the napkin in her lap. While Leroy observes the two women and decides it was best to say nothing at all. Even a preoccupied Beth stops what she is doing and looks at the three adults curiously, noticing the shift in the room in her own little way.

 

It was Quinn who decided to break the deafening silence and bring up the topic that they had all been avoiding to some extent or another all night.

 

“I never got the chance to thank you for the sunflowers, Rachel.” Quinn says apologetically as she put her hands onto the table, facing Rachel.

 

“It's not necessary to thank me Quinn.” Rachel says meekly. “I was happy to do it. I'm sorry that I was unable to give them to you at the services in person.” _I couldn't go because I didn't want to face what I had done._ The former liaison thought to herself as she stands up with her plate in hand and moves over to her daughter's high chair.

 

“Don't worry about it. It was probably for the best .” Quinn says casually, while looking down at the tablecloth as she imagines how chaotic the day would have been if Rachel had gone to the funeral.

 

Santana had been a mess during the entire ceremony. Had the former liaison showed up with the flowers, Quinn was sure that the junior agent would have temporarily set aside her own grief and would have tried her hardest to make the event a double funeral. Judging by the grief that Tina had been giving Rachel all week since she joined the team, she was sure the junior agent would have had help digging the brunette's grave.

 

Rachel looks away from the senior agent and down at Beth, whose words had stung her a little not because Quinn had said them but because she was sure her presence would have been a distraction for the senior agent and those who were mourning Agent McKenzie that day.

 

She takes the napkin and wipes the toddler's face, not seeing the remorseful glint in the senior agent's eyes.

 

“That's not how I meant to say-”

 

“It must have been painful for Danielle's parents.” Leroy interrupts, playing buffer to the awkward semi apology. The senior agent turns to Leroy and sends him a grateful look. “No parent wants to live long enough to bury their child.”

 

“Her parents were killed in a car accident when she was nineteen.” Quinn corrects him after a couple of moments in silence. “She's buried next to them actually, with a couple hundred feet between them.”

 

Rachel looked away from Beth and glared pointedly at Leroy, who looks down in embarrassment. Quinn returns Leroy's favor by continuing on with the conversation.“But her two brothers were able to get bereavement leave to attend her funeral. Her sister, Sophia, made it to the wake but had to leave because she had an emergency with one of her clients.”

 

“What does Danielle''s sister do?” Leroy asks curiously.

 

“She's a psychologist.” Quinn answers. “Sophia has her own practice in San Francisco.”

 

“That's nice.” Leroy says with a smile. “It's good that she had some of her family there.” Rachel gave Beth a kiss on her cheek, which caused the two year old to giggle and then walks over to the sink to put their plates away. Out of her peripheral vision, Rachel kept a close eye on the conversation, wanting to make sure that Leroy did not say anything else that might offend Agent Fabray.

 

“What about your parents Quinn? Were they able to make it to the funeral.”

 

If Rachel had a knife in her hand, she surely would have thrown it right at her father's temple. She drops the plates into the sink, the loud clang rattling the otherwise quiet room. Leroy looks over towards her and mouths 'what' only to get a steely glare in return, warning him not to go any farther with Quinn for some reason.

 

The former NCIS agent then turns to the senior agent, who had closed her eyes and whose expression spelled gloom, told him what he needed to know. That once again, Leroy Berry managed to step in it yet again.

 

“My mother was killed nine years ago in a car accident.” Quinn says sadly. “She and my sister were vacationing in Mexico when their car lost control. They were both killed on impact.”

 

Rachel sees the haunted look in the senior agent's eyes and she wants nothing more than to wrap her into a tight hug and squeeze the agent's pain away. The former liaison had read the dossier on Agent Fabray and the gruesome details behind the deaths of her mother and sister. She knew the senior agent was lying to her father about what happened, but she did not have the heart to correct her or enlighten her father about the details.

 

“Oh sh-crap, I am so sorry Quinn.” Leroy apologizes, gaping a little. He could not believe that someone so young could have lost so much already. “I didn't know.”

 

“It's okay Leroy.” Quinn says sadly. “You didn't know.”

 

“I'm almost afraid to ask you about your father, since you didn't mention him.” Leroy says as he stands up out of his chair and walks towards the kitchen.

 

“Then do us all a favor and don't ask.” Rachel mutters as she wipes the dish. It was loud enough for the two other adults in the room to hear. When he gets into the kitchen, Leroy glares at Rachel, who grins sheepishly at him.

 

“I wasn't kidding before when I said that I had a reason to disown my father.” Quinn says, chuckling at the Berry family interaction. “He disowned me when I was sixteen, after I came out to him at sixteen. He set an egg timer and gave me thirty minutes to pack all my things.”

 

If she were the type to be completely honest, the blond agent would say that she was a bit envious of the close relationship that Berry seemed to have with her father. If Russell wasn't such a bigoted jackass, maybe they would have had a fraction the relationship Rachel seems to share with her father.

 

“That's awful.” Leroy says disgusted. He was glad that he would never have the opportunity to meet Quinn's father because not even Rachel could stop him from giving the absentee father a piece of his mind or a swift ass kicking.

 

The former NCIS agent never could understand how a parent could just callously throw their child out on the street for something that they can't change and abandon them when they need you the most. Home should be a refuge and safe haven from the rest of the world, not another place where a child feels unwelcome.

 

The more Leroy learns about Quinn Fabray, the more he begins to understand Sue's decision to mentor the senior agent and eventually pass her old team onto her.

 

“ I do have my brother in law, niece and nephew. I try to see them during the holidays, if the team's not swamped at the office.” Quinn says, trying to show the former NCIS agent that her life wasn't completely crappy.

 

She didn't want him feeling sorry for her for the hands that she's been dealt in life. The blond had not felt sorry for herself and it always made it uncomfortable when other people would do it. Considering all of the other traumas she could have been put through in her life like a car accident that put her in a wheel chair for months, a teenage pregnancy or god forbid, dating the dopey quarterback who didn't know his left foot from his right. In that regard, Quinn felt like she was lucky.

 

She had good things and good people in her life and the blond would not trade any of that to change all of the bad things that have happened in her life.

 

“Jacob and Anna.” Quinn says with a fond smile, remembering all of the trouble she would unwittingly get her niece and nephew in during her visits. “Anna is fourteen and Jacob is eleven now and they've been pressuring me for the last few of months to spend Christmas with them and my brother in law this year. They say that they miss their Aunt Quinnie, but I think they only miss me because I'll let them go on joy rides in their dad's car as long as I'm the passenger.”

 

She tried to be the responsible aunt that her sister always wanted her to be. But for some reason, Quinn and the kids always found a way to get in trouble during the duration of her visits. A couple of summers ago, the blond agent had even taught her niece Anna, who was the oldest between the two, how to drive after she got into an argument with someone who had been bullying her in school. The twelve year old had driven the two of them in circles until they were stopped by one of those mall cops. Quinn gave him the infamous Fabray glare and the guard visibly flinched. Then she flashed her badge and told him that this was part of an investigation that she was involved in. And if he didn't want to be apart of it, that he would walk away right now and let them get back to work. The terrified guard stuttered out an apology before rushing back to his cart. She and Anna spent the next few minutes laughing until their stomachs hurt and then the preteen asked when her Aunt was going to teach her the Fabray glare.

 

Rachel smiles brightly at the senior agent, liking how it seems like the blond had let her guard down, if only for a moment. “Are you going to take them up on their offer?”

 

“Thinking about it.” Quinn says as her smile drops and her guard goes up once more.

 

For a moment, the senior agent forgot that she was not in the safety and confines of her own home. She was in her probationary agent's home having dinner with her and her father, one of her former bosses. The blond blames Anna and Jacob for his, seeing as she always seems to forget where she is when she talks about them.

 

“It's not like I have any other plans for the holidays anyway.” Quinn says nonchalantly. _At least not anymore._ “If a case doesn't come up that needs our team's attention, then I'll probably be going to their place in Chicago for Christmas.”

 

Quinn scoots her chair from under the table and stands up, picking her plate up from the table. The senior agent then makes her way to where the two adult Berrys were standing in the kitchen. Beth happens to look over at the same time to find that her companion is not there. The toddler has her lower lip poked out and her lips begin to tremble.

 

“Winn! Winn!” the two year old bellows out and slams her tiny fists on the flat top of the high chair. When the senior agent does not appear at her call, the temperamental little brunette becomes more upset and her assault on the high chair table grows.

 

As Quinn sets her plate in the sink, Beth's wails for her catch her attention as well as the two older Berrys. She notices that the little girl is in the beginning stages of a tantrum, red face and the shivering of her upper lip as she starts hitting the table harder and harder.

 

“Winn!Winn!Winn!” Beth wails and then burst out crying.

 

The senior agent turns around and looks at Rachel questioningly, wondering if she should just go over there and give the crying girl what she wants. But the former liaison silently tells her to stay where she is and that she can handle Beth.

 

Rachel then looks away from the blond and heads over to Beth's high chair. The two year old girl is throwing her arms up and kicking her legs all over the place. It takes a couple of seconds for her to unsnap the table and flip it up to the other side, thanks to the upset toddler kicking at her ribs. But she manages to get it off. She places her hands underneath her daughter's arms and lifts the crying girl into her arms.

 

“Shh, sweetie it's alright.” Rachel coos as she pats Beth on her back and bounces her a little to get her to calm down.

 

Beth cries get louder and Rachel looks at the clock and realizes that they have kept the two year old up longer than the little brunette was used to. “You're just a little tired since you've stayed up way past your bed time. Yes you have.”

 

The former liaison turns around to face the blond and her father and looks at her boss apologetically.

 

“I think it's time for the little monster to say goodnight.” Rachel tells the two adults while she makes her way over to them. “Do you want to say goodnight to Quinn, sweetheart?”

 

“Winn!” Beth bellows, sniffling a little, seemingly calming down.

 

The former liaison approaches the senior agent and turns around so that the blond could see her daughter's face.

 

Beth leans over her mother's shoulder and reaches out for Quinn's hand. The senior agent lifts her hand and lets the toddler grab a hold of her finger. Her blue eyes stare at the blond sadly and the senior agent noticed that there were still a few unshed tears still in her eyes.

 

“Winn come back?” Beth asks sadly, poking her lower lip out.

 

Quinn smiles at the little girl and kisses the top of her head. “Yes sweetheart, I'll come back soon. Goodnight Beth.”

 

“Night Winn.” Beth gives her a watery smile and lets go of the senior agent's hand. She then takes that same hand and bops the senior agent on the nose. She sleepily cuddles her head into her mother's tan neck and relaxes.

 

Rachel turns back around and smiles warmly at the senior agent. “I'm just going to put her to bed, it won't take long.”

 

“Take all the time you need Berry. I'll still be here when you get back.”

 

Rachel nods appreciatively and walks away from her father and boss and heads towards the stairway.

 

As they walk away, the senior agent can hear the brunette softly singing in her daughter's ear. She smiles softly at the two brunettes, her eyes lingering on them for a moment too long as they walked away.

 

While Quinn was busy watching Rachel and Beth, Leroy found himself studying the senior agent and the way that she was looking at her daughter. From the moment Rachel came into the doorway and the way Quinn's eyes lit up as soon as she made her appearance, the former agent could tell that there was something there.

 

The blond agent may not be ready to be acknowledge what she feels now, considering everything that's happened. He doesn't even think his daughter was fully aware of what was going on yet, in spite of the fact that he has heard nothing but Quinn this or Agent Fabray that since he has been here. There were a couple of times at dinner where he would catch Rachel gazing adoringly at Quinn subtlety, at least for her, when the blond was preoccupied with Beth.

 

He thinks they could be good together. The stoic agent will challenge Rachel and push her past what she thinks she can handle. And his daughter and Beth could add some levity and peace to the senior agent's life. Lord knows Quinn would be a far better option for his daughter than Brody ever was. He admittedly liked the young man at first, but it quickly became apparent that the former Mossad operative would be an anchor that weighed his daughter down and hold her back from what she could do.

 

From what he's seen so far from the senior agent, Leroy doesn't think that the blond could ever be capable of holding Rachel back the way that Brody had.

 

The former agent walks up to the senior agent and places his hand lightly on her shoulder. Quinn turns to look at the older man, who was smiling knowingly at her.

 

“So Quinn, now that we're alone and the buzz kill is gone, I would you like to hear all the stories Rachel wishes I'd forget.” Leroy says as he motions for them to head over to the couch.

 

“I'd love to Leroy.” Quinn said chuckling, not exactly surprised that the brunette would do something like that.

 

“Fantastic.” Leroy says with a smile. “Let's start with the time Rachel snuck into the her high school's biology department storage locker and released all their live frogs and held a burial ceremony for the fetal pigs.”

 

Thirty minutes later, Rachel leans forward and kisses the top of her now sleeping daughter's head. Once she had gotten the two year old out of her dress and into pajamas. She also managed to convince her that saying 'Winn' over and over again wasn't going to make the senior agent magically appear. It took ten minutes for her little girl to finally succumb to sleep.

 

She softly thanked her daughter for being the little angel she knew she could be. The brunette then stood by the crib and spent the last ten minutes watching her daughter sleep peacefully. She would have to find a way to treat Beth for behaving as well as she did this evening with her boss.

 

The former liaison also found her thoughts wandering to the senior agent, who was admittedly the reason why she was not in a rush to get back downstairs and join. To say that she was a little more impressed with the senior agent's prowess with kids and the way she talked about her niece and nephew had surprised her. With her usual disposition, the little that she has seen of it, Rachel would have thought that Quinn wouldn't have the patience that it takes to deal with children. The senior agent barely seemed to tolerate adults. It was another quality about the senior agent that she found attractive.

 

Good looks, a certain roguish, rough around the edges charm, intelligent and good with kids. A woman who could wear a paper bag and still make it look good. Outside of her impatience, short temper and need to be right most of the time, if they hadn't met under the circumstances that they had, the brunette would have thrown caution to the wind and asked the senior agent out.

 

_Ugh, stop this. There's no point in entertaining those kinds of thoughts anyway Rachel. Quinn is obviously still grieving over her wife and needs time. Besides, I probably wouldn't be her type anyway._

 

Rachel sighs and tries to get rid of all thoughts of Quinn in that way. First of all, the blond was her boss. The senior agent may have made an exception for Agent McKenzie, with her no dating anyone on the job rule. After everything that has happened, the former liaison thinks that the likelihood of the stoic blond making that exception again was low.

 

Secondly, its been nearly a year since she has been on a proper date. Between Beth, work and trying to keep Brody out of trouble while dealing with his 'I want to be a family' moods, the former liaison hadn't had a whole lot of opportunities to have a life outside of all of that. Maybe her slight crush on the blond, was her subconscious way of telling her that she needs to start dating again, now that the burden of Brody was off her shoulders.

 

Whatever the reason for her infatuation with the senior agent, Rachel needs to get over it before she goes back downstairs.

 

Rachel reaches into the crib and strokes a strand of the toddler's hair behind her ear one last time and reluctantly walks away from the crib. When she's out of the room, the former liaison and cracks the door quietly. She heads down the steps and goes back downstairs into the kitchen area.

 

When she gets there, the former liaison sees that neither her father nor Quinn were anywhere to be found. Rachel did notice that it appeared that all of the left over food was put away, Beth's high chair and the kitchen table were once again spotless and the dishwasher was running. The twosome apparently got together and cleaned up the kitchen, which Rachel thought was sweet for Quinn to help, considering she was the guest.

 

She bit her lip, hoping to stop the fluttering her stomach was doing at the senior agent's gesture.

 

The sounds of laughter coming from the living room, thankfully provide her with a temporary distraction.

 

Rachel makes her way over to the living room couch to find Agent Fabray and Leroy sitting on the couch laughing hysterically. It looks like Leroy is the middle of one of his stories and if she wanted to take a guess, that story may be about her.

 

She walks up behind a close by wall and peaks behind it, making sure that the two of them couldn't see her.

 

“When Clara told her that she wanted to 'have the freedom to explore other people' you want to know what Rachel did?” Leroy mimics her ex-girlfriend's unusually high pitched voice. “She managed to convince a couple of members of the school's orchestra to come to the auditorium for her assignment and got them to perform 'Give you hell' with her. She dedicated her performance to the poor girl at the beginning. The entire auditorium joined in and sang the last chorus along with her and Clara ran out of there like the whole building was on fire.”

 

“Oh wow?” Quinn chuckles disbelievingly. “I would have loved to see that.”

 

“ You can.” Leroy says as he takes a sip out of his glass of red. “ The next time I come back to DC, I'll have to bring you the disk that I have the performance on. Camera guy kept his focus on her ex-girlfriend the whole time! I think it went viral around her campus for a while.”

 

“Rachel sounds like she was something.” Quinn says as she shakes her head. She picks her own wine up from off the table and takes a couple of gulps before setting the glass down.

 

“Was?” Leroy asks skeptically. “She still is. It's just that she's become a little more reserved over the years than she used to be.” The brightness in his eyes lessens and the smile that he's had the last hour that he's recounted stories about his daughter's childhood dampens.

 

“Working in Mossad for as long as she has will do that to you I guess.” Leroy says bitterly. He raises the glass to his lips and takes a quick gulp.

 

The two occupants on the couch don't say anything further for a while and Rachel thinks she should probably stop spying on their conversation and make her presence known. But at the same time, Rachel wants to hear what her father has to say about her time at Mossad.

 

She's always known that her father Leroy never wanted her to work at Mossad and hated the organization. He always blamed the politics with being involved in the agency for tearing his family apart. Rachel remembers the time she told him that she was taking Hiram's offer to join the agency. Her normally supportive father blew up on her for an hour and she threw it all right back in his face, telling him that Hiram wasn't the only one to break up their marriage and family. She reminded him of the man that Leroy slept with after one of the last big fights with Hiram before their subsequent divorce.

 

Hurt and in shock, Leroy said venomously that he'll make sure to pick out a nice casket for her when Mossad was done with her before hanging up on her.

 

They didn't speak to each other for two months after that conversation took place. It wasn't until she received a huge boutique of flowers on her desk from the apologetic man that they started to speak again and he accepted that Mossad was what she wanted to do.

 

She wanted to hear her father's unfiltered thoughts about her job and the only way she was going to do that was to get comfortable behind this wall.

 

“When I first joined NCIS after law school, all I wanted to do was make the world a little bit safer.” Leroy begins with a far away look in his eyes. “I had done some paralegal work at the District Attorney's office back in New York throughout college and law schools and some of the cases I saw sickened me.”

 

Quinn stares at the former agent and listens to his story intently. She fought the urge to look away or change the topic and forget how his intentions mirrored her own at seventeen, when she enlisted into the Marines.

 

“I could have gone on to the DA's office and worked my way up to an assistant district attorney's position and with time, I could have been the district attorney. But that wouldn't stop the horrific cases from coming across my desk. I realized during an interview with the DA's office that I wanted to stop those cases from coming across a prosecutor's desk, at least as many as I could if possible.”

 

Leroy pauses for a moment and closes his eyes. “I was stupid to think that.”

 

Agent Fabray stares at Leroy quizzically but they let the former agent continue on.

 

“I stupidly thought that at NCIS, we were all on the same side, the agents who deal with the cases day to day and the higher ups in charge. That we wanted to catch the people who are murdering soldiers and civilians and make sure that they're not capable of doing it again. Apparently that wasn't the case.” Leroy stops and picks up his wine glass, this time he finishes the whole thing in a couple of gulps.

 

“Thanks to politics, an innocent soldier, who happened to be at the wrong place and the wrong time, was given the death penalty because of a mistake that was made in the investigation.” Leroy continues on, with a haunted look swirling in his honey brown eyes. What he didn't tell the senior agent was that the mistake had been his.

 

“The Dirty Dozen case of 1992 at Fort Hamilton?” Quinn asks hesitantly, remembering that was one of the cases that Sylvester had made them study. She said that this case was a textbook example of what happens when we screw up. The former agent in charge had made the new members of her team memorize the details of the case and she even had them point out what the team involved in this case had done wrong.

 

Twelve marines had their throats slit in their bunks. The Marines ran their own investigation, but came up empty evidence wise because the crime scene had been disturbed. NCIS was given the case after the death of a staff sergeant, who happened to be related to someone in the Senate. But the case did not make national news until another staff sergeant, Blake Evans and his young family, were slaughtered in their homes.

 

Quinn had seen the crime scene photos and all of the blood that surrounded the Evans home. But the brutality that the unknown subject inflicted on the bodies of the family had been enough for her to lose her lunch. She hasn't seen anything that horrible since.

 

The media and the press were all over this story and wanted to know why the law enforcement agencies involved had not caught this monster yet. NCIS' budget was expanded and the FBI even made a play to take over the case from NCIS in case it had been to much for the small agency to handle.

 

After weeks of working the case, the killer struck again. This time, he killed a Sergeant Major and his wife. This case had been different from the others because they now had DNA and finger prints to work with and their main suspect was a recently promoted gunnery sergeant named Justin Avery.

 

Unfortunately for Justin, he also had the misfortune of knowing six of the twelve original victims. After hours of questioning him and finding footage of the staff sergeant entering the sergeant major's home an hour before he was killed, the marines were quick to court marshal him and sentence him to death. The decision to put him to death had been unanimous and the former staff sergeant hadn't stood a chance.

 

Sylvester refused to release the names of the agent's working the case or their agent in charge, but she had it was some of the worst investigative work done on a case that she has ever witnessed. Quinn's surprise to hear that this was the case that caused Leroy to retire.

 

“Yes. “Leroy answers softly. “That was the one.”

 

There was so much pressure placed on this case, with the public itching to stick anyone on the stake for justice after the murder of that poor family. Leroy wasn't even functioning the way that he should have. He had recently gotten back from another Mossad mission. The former agent wasn't thinking straight at the time and as a result, it caused him to zealously say that Justin Avery was on that tape during the time of the murders. He had questioned himself for weeks and his job. Leroy even went to the agent in charge of their team with his concerns a week before he was to receive a commendation for his work on the case. Agent Travers had told Leroy in no uncertain terms that he was to forget about it and move on to the next case.

 

“Our boss was given a commendation and a comfy position at the DOJ, while that poor man spent ten years on death row before he was executed.”

 

“I was there for the whole trial and sentencing.” Leroy revealed distantly. “After the verdict was read, I went to the Director Gibbons to tell him about my mistake. That staff sergeant Avery couldn't have committed those murders and was innocent. That the man who did it was still out there. The director told me that what was done was done and there was nothing to be done about it now. I took my gun and my badge off and handed it to him right then and I haven't looked back since. Making NCIS look good was more important than seeking justice and I wanted nothing to do with that.”

 

Rachel looks at her father sympathetically, wondering why he had never told her this story before.

 

“Sue called me a dozen times when I didn't show up for work the next morning.” Leroy says chuckling. “Hell, she broke down Hiram and I 's back door when I refused to answer. She tried to get me to go back and spit in Agent Traver's face, but I told her that it was time to move on.”

 

“Afterwards, we spent the whole time drinking her toxic, homemade tequila and swearing everyone in the company.”

 

“You know, that's the least surprising part of your story.” Quinn says lightly. “She gave me some of it one time, after a rough case and I swear she may have found a way to inject death into that stuff.”

 

Leroy and Quinn laugh again. Even Rachel chuckles at this as she tries to imagine the kind of character this Agent Sylvester must be.

 

“She told me that after fifteen years on the job, they were finally giving her a team in DC. She also told me if I didn't drop in every once in a while to see her, that she would kidnap me and keep me here in DC.” Leroy says with a smile.

 

They sit in silence for another moment, letting the wine kick in and for Leroy, make him feel sentimental.

 

“Things turned out alright after I left NCIS. Shelby agreed to have Hiram and I's child a few months earlier and before I went off on that Mossad mission, we found out that the invitro took. So I was going to quit anyway. I thought I could put that time of my life behind me and focus on raising our Rachel. But when she to me and told me that she wanted to be an NCIS agent, I was so angry with her.” the former agent fumes towards the end.

 

“Why would she want to deal with all of those cases again and again and again with no end in sight? Why would she want to voluntarily deal with the bullshit politics involved with working for the agency? Why would she want to willingly give up the best years of her life and risk giving up a part of her soul for an agency that won't give a damn about her? I wondered how she could be so damn stupid, not after all the time I spent trying to steer her away from what Hiram and I do! She has a beautiful voice and could make the world brighter with that instead of getting into a career where you burn out faster and hate the world before you hit forty. And you know what she said?”

 

Quinn shook her head and nodded intriguingly.

 

“She wanted to make the world safer for at least one person, even if she couldn't save everyone.” Leroy said tearfully. “Rachel said that it was her duty to do so, even if it took her a while to realize it. She said that it was worth the sacrifice if it meant that one person could go to sleep without having to worry about whether or not they were going to be a murder victim. She wanted one family to know what happened to their loved one so that they can have a sense of closure. If that meant sacrificing the other parts in her life to make sure that happens, it was a sacrifice that she was willing to make. It was the same answer I used to justify to my parents as to why I wouldn't be some hot shot prosecutor in Manhattan.”

 

Rachel turned away from her father and Quinn, shedding a couple of stray tears afterwards. The conversation that they had when she announced her intentions to become a Mossad agent was starting to make sense.

 

“This job takes parts of you that you'll never be able to get back.” Leroy says solemnly. “I don't know exact details of Rachel's missions with Mossad. She won't tell me and I don't think I'd want to know anyway. But if Hiram is anything to go by, then she's already had fundamental parts of herself taken away, from them and Brody.”

 

The former agent then turns to the senior agent and regards her seriously. “If Sue saw in you the qualities that I strongly suspect she saw in you, then I know you're not like the other agents in charge at NCIS or Mossad. You don't see your team members as replaceable numbers and you actually give a damn about them.”

 

Quinn looks down and fiddles with the glass in her hand. “At the end of the day, I try to make sure that everyone gets home. Sometimes it doesn't work that way-”

 

“You do the best that you can. It's all you can do Quinn.” Leroy says sympathetically. “I believe Sue when she says that you're a damn fine leader and I trust that Rachel is in good hands on your team. That you will move heaven and earth to get her back home to Beth.”

 

“Thank you Leroy.” Quinn says hoarsely. “It means a lot that you think that.”

 

Leroy takes the senior agent's glass and places it on the table along with his own. He takes her hand into his and looks at her seriously.

 

“I don't want to tell you how to run your team, but I do ask is that you make sure my little songbird doesn't lose herself in this job.Can you just look out for her for me?” Leroy asks. “I know that Rachel is fully capable of taking care of herself and that she doesn't need a babysitter. But her other father, Hiram, was a good man who could take care of himself too and this job killed everything that he was until he was nothing but an empty vessel of who he used to be.”

 

Leroy lowered his head. “I don't want the same thing to happen to Rachel. I don't think I could stand it if it did.”

 

The senior agent knows that she couldn't fulfill the former agent's request fully. Their jobs and the depravity that they are forced to bear witness to made that promise impossible. She had already lost everything that mattered to her, thanks to her doing her 'job' and she doesn't think she'll ever be the same. One of her former teammates on Sylvester's team, Oliver, ate his gun a few months after he gave Schuester his notice. There were going to be cases that haunt them and send them to the edge of the abyss and there was nothing that could be done about it.

 

“Leroy, you know I can't do that.” Quinn says sadly as she pats him on the shoulder. “It's the way this job is that we're exposed to the darkest aspects of humankind. You know as well as I do that the abyss that this job sometimes sends you into is unavoidable and even the strongest people don't make it out without being broken.”

 

“What I can do is promise to keep her as far away from the abyss as possible if I see that she's near the edge, even though I think Rachel's going to be fine.” Quinn tells him comfortingly. “It's what I do for every member of my team and Rachel is one of us now.”

 

Leroy smiles sadly at her. “Thank you Quinn.”

 

A touched Rachel moves away from her hiding place from the wall and decides to interrupt the heavy conversation that the two agents were having. Hearing her father worry about her turning into Hiram and how Quinn says that she has a place on her team was a lot for the former liaison to take. If their conversation went any longer like this, the brunette was sure that her position would be given away by her whimpering.

 

 

She leans away from the wall and makes the next two hundred and fifty foot journey to the couch where her dad and Quinn were sitting on.

 

Two hours later, the senior agent bid the former NCIS agent a good night. After Rachel returned from putting Beth to sleep, the lively brunette and Quinn sat back and listened to Leroy entertain them with all the stories that he could come up with in his slightly drunken state. From the time Rachel made her vocal instructor cry when she was ten, which the brunette tried to defend that he had said that she was too sharp when she wasn't to hearing about the time Sylvester, during an overseas operation, sold Leroy out to the Russian weapons smuggling, in exchange for a missile. Leroy was more offended that all Sue could get for him was a lousy, short range missile, but got over it when the crazy agent came back with a stolen tank ten minutes later.

 

When it was time for her to turn in for the night, Rachel had insisted that she get the opportunity to walk the senior agent home. No matter how many times she tried to protest, the brunette would say that because of her intake of wine for the night, that the senior agent's senses wouldn't be functioning properly which left her vulnerable to an attack. After their fifth go round argument, Quinn finally gave in and went to say goodnight to Leroy. They found him sprawled out on the couch and dead to the world, causing the two women to chuckle.

 

Rachel rolled her eyes but leaned over and kissed her father on his temple before taking Quinn by the arm and locking the door behind her.

 

What Quinn and Rachel failed to see was that Leroy used the one eye that he had partially open and the wink he sent to the departing women.

 

For the last ten minutes or so, Rachel and Quinn walked arm in arm in silence.Neither one of them felt the need to say anything to disrupt the serene sounds of the nights. Instead, the two women reveled in the cool breeze of a fall night in DC as well as the company of one another.

 

Unfortunately, their nice stroll came to an end when they reached the senior agent's darkened house. They carefully made their way up the stairs and when Quinn stumbled a little on the second step, Rachel was quick to steady her once again.

 

When they get to the door, Rachel reluctantly slips her arm out of Quinn's and lets it fall back to her side. The senior agent pulls her house keys out of her cardigan and places them into the lock. Two seconds later, the blond could hear the sounds of Jethro's footsteps scurrying towards the door She turns to look at Rachel and smiles softly at the new agent. She feels as if she's back in high school and on her awkward first date again with the head cheerio Stacy all over again. Maybe it was the wine that was making her feel all warm inside. Or the way that the light of the moon seems to hit Rachel and make her look softer and vulnerable than she probably is.

 

Whatever it is, it feels nice to Quinn in her slightly drunken stupor. It was nice to have something feel nice again after four months of hell.

 

The senior agent clears her throat and reluctantly gazes into Rachel's eyes.

 

“I had a nice time Berry.” Quinn says softly. “Thank you for putting up with me for the night.”

 

“It was my pleasure Agent Fabray.” Rachel replies with a little mirth in her eyes at the annoyed glare she receives from the senior agent. “It was nice to have someone over that wasn't my crazy father or mother figure or someone that was too young to make complex sentences and needs a nap every five hours. You should come over more often.” Rachel places a hand on one of Quinn's arms and the senior agent feels her ears flush red in heat. “My door's always open to you Quinn, anytime you need it.”

 

The senior agent gulps and realizes that she needs to get out of this situation and quickly. She takes a couple of steps away from the former liaison and makes her way into the door way of her home with Jethro nipping at her ankles.

 

“I'll see you bright and early on Monday, Berry.”

 

Quinn nods at Rachel one last time and then closes the door behind her.

 

Rachel stands on the steps of the house and looks at the door longingly.

 

Rachel whispers as she walks down the steps of the senior agent's home. “Je souhaite des reves doux vous mon cher ami.”

 

Rachel takes one last look at the dark house and sighs. She crosses her arms over herself, realizing how cold it was for the first time since she left just how cold it really was outside. The former liaison figured that was just the kind effect that someone like Quinn Fabray had on her.

 

The last thing Rachel thinks about on her journey home is how she needed to get a handle on whatever it was that she felt for the senior agent and soon.

 

 

 


	17. Switch

“ _Momma! Momma! Wake up!”_

 

_Quinn opens her eyes, in a haze, to find a pair of tiny hands shaking her arm. She turns over to her left side to find Franny in the space where her mother should have been. The little blond girl with her mother's electric green eyes with an impatient pout. The senior agent chuckles at their little girl._

 

“ _I'm up kiddo, I'm up.” Quinn says raspy whisper. She stretches both of her arms out for the four year old, who happily obliges. She places a kiss on top of Franny's head and holds onto her for a few minutes before the four year old started twitching again. “Where's your mommy?”_

 

“ _In the room with Mikey.” Franny answers mumbling into her mother's shirt.”You so soft momma.” She barrows her head further into the senior agent's stomach sleepily._

 

_Quinn chuckles at her daughter's antics and lifts the small blond into her arms. She sits them both up, with her daughter now sitting on her lap. She kisses the top of the blond girl's head and the little girl squeezes her in return. They sit there for a few moments and Quinn can't help but think that this is what life was supposed to be like. Just living her life with her beautiful wife and their two adorable kids. The responsibility and the never ending cases that came with working for NCIS or having the burden of making sure that everyone on her team came home safely. Instead, her only responsibility was to make sure that Mikey got to school on time or that Franny had her crayons for preschool. No more answering to or having to justify her every decision to Sue or Terri. Jesse was no longer her partner, he was her best friend,godfather and uncle Jesse to their kids._

 

_The former agent couldn't have for a better life than the one that she has right now._

 

_Quinn looks down at her daughter and smiles conspiratorially._

 

“ _Come on Franny, what do you say we sneak up on Mikey and Mommy. Give them a little scare before they have to go.”_

 

_The four year old nods her head excitedly and hops off of her mother's lap, stomping on the floor in the process while Quinn stands up and stretches her limbs. When she's done, the four year old stomps her foot impatiently, putting her hands on her hips and giving the former agent her patented Fabray glare._

 

_Quinn puts a finger over her lips and shushes the girl._

 

“ _We have to be really quiet or they'll hear us coming.” Quinn tells her quietly. “You don't want them to do that now do you?”_

 

_Franny shakes her head and invisibly zips her mouth shut. The four year old then reaches out for the older blond's hand and quietly tugs her along the hallway to Michael's room._

 

_When the two blonds get to the seven year old's door though, Quinn feels a chill in the air. She protectively and gently pushes her daughter behind her leg. The former agent takes a couple of careful steps forward until she is about one hundred feet away from the door._

 

_As she gets closer to the door, the scent of copper fills the air around the eldest Fabray._

 

“ _Mama look!” the four year old says as she points down towards the floor. “Mommy and Mikey spilled juice all over the floor!”_

 

_Quinn feels her blood run cold as she looks down at her feet to see a puddle of red liquid surrounding them. She feels the warm, red liquid go through the spaces of her toes and it takes every ounce of restraint that she has to keep her composure to not alert her daughter of the greasy scene that greets them on the other side of that door._

 

_The oblivious four year old lets go of her mother's hand and skips over to the door. She gets on her tip toes for the door knob and opens it without a thought about the liquid surrounding her feet. The former agent reaches out to stop her but is too late._

 

_Quinn uses her arm to cover the bright light coming from the door while the four year old bounces happily inside of her big brother's room._

 

_When the light dies down, the former agent carefully steps inside her son's room. She looks around the seven year old's room to find that the walls are exactly the same as they had been the night before. The Captain America and Ninja turtles posters that adorned the dark blue walls of the room remained in tact. His reading nook by the window that the two of them spent countless hours working on two summers ago was still there and his small collection of books were stacked neatly against one another. While his Iron Man, Thor and Black Widow action figures lie haphazardly on the floor. She remembers telling him to pick them up before he went to bed last night so they wouldn't be broken. The seven year old had obviously ignored her warning and left them there anyway._

 

_Quinn leans down and picks up the Thor action figure, one of her son's favorites, and sees that it is covered in blood. Out of instinct the former agent places her hand on the side of her hip where her holster would usually be, and reaches for her Sig Sauer to find that it isn't there. She follows the trail of blood until she feels a cold chill on the tips of her toes._

 

_When the former agent looks down again, she finds the lifeless green eyes of her wife gazing at her in scrutiny._

 

_Quinn kneels down and caresses Dani's cold cheek. Her lips were left parted, and the former agent finds her hands shakily and gently closing her mouth. She remembers how her wife had kissed the corners of her mouth lovingly as a good morning, since Quinn wasn't normally awake by the time Dani had to be at the Naval Yard. Even in her deep sleep, the former agent could feel the comforting warmth coming from her wife long after the brunette's work day began._

 

_Now that warmth was no more._

 

_The blond finds herself closing her eyes and praying for the first time since she was that desperate teenager who wanted to get as far from the small town mentality of Lima as she could. She prayed that Dani had not suffered for too long and that their two children had not witnessed what's become of their mother._

 

_She looks down and glares at the bullet wound in the middle of her forehead that was seared into her skin. She feels like she has seen this before, but can't remember where. Not that it matters to her one way or another, seeing as the person responsible for this would soon pay for tearing her family apart._

 

_Quinn closes Dani's eyes and gently kisses both of her eyelids when she is done. She gets up and reluctantly leaves her wife's side._

 

_She moves further into the Mike's bedroom, where is bunk beds and rocking chair lie, when she finds her daughter sitting in one of the bunk beds._

 

_It doesn't take long for Franny to see her and shoot of the bed excitedly._

 

“ _Mama, come on!” Franny says excitedly. “He says that he will tell us a story before he hasta go to school!”_

 

_The four year old grabs her calloused hand and leads the former agent to where her brother is, not giving her mom a chance to grab her and get her out of the room._

 

_It doesn't take long for them to get to the rocking chair and when they do, they find Michael. His head slumped forward on the man's chest while the stranger strokes his hair, almost lovingly.Blood stained the back of her son's head and left a trail down his light blue Captain America shirt. The sight causes her spine to run cold, but Quinn's resolve refuses to show her daughter or this man how terrified she really is. The older blond instinctively steps in front of the four year old and obscures the view of her deceased brother, thinking that it would be best if she didn't remember the little boy that way._

 

_The pale stranger stops stroking her pale, little boy's hair when he feels the presence of the former agent and the remaining member of her family. His cold, cobalt blue eyes glance up at the intruder and Quinn notices the metallic red hole seared into the middle of his forehead and she sees a line of blood drip down his forehead. The man looks at her curiously, taking a few moments to size up the new arrival. Once he was done studying her, his eyes narrow and his gaze grows hard._

 

_Quinn returns the man's hard glare, not willing to back down from him in spite of the fact that she was currently at a disadvantage. If all of her years as a marine and an NCIS agent have taught her anything is that she could easily get that gun out of his hands with one wrong move on his part. So he may have had the advantage for now, but the former agent was going to make sure that he wouldn't have it for too much longer._

 

_Before the older blond could make her move, Franny manages to squirm out of her tight grip and skips happily over to the man in black._

 

_Everything happened so fast, but for Quinn, it felt like it was all happening too slowly for her to process it all. The former agent watched as the man lifted his gun, aimed at Franny's heart and fires. She feels the blood splatter on her face like light rain._

 

_Quinn hears the thump of her daughter's body falling to the ground but does not have the strength to look at the little girl's prone and lifeless body just lying there on the ground. It was all too much for her to take._

 

_She stands there frozen, with her daughter's blood dripping all over her night shirt and her wife's blood staining her hands. The sight of the mighty Quinn Fabray brought down to her knees made the man in black start to cackle with glee._

 

_The noise brings Quinn out of her trance and hazel eyes gaze at the stranger with horror._

 

“ _Why?” Quinn asks meekly and tearfully. She swallows the lump in her throat and the stranger's laugh becomes louder. “Why would you do this to them? They were innocent! They hadn't done anything wrong! Why didn't you kill just me if I'm the one you wanted?!”_

 

_The man's suddenly becomes more tan and his complexion becomes more rugged, riddled with scars. Yet his eyes remain the same cold cobalt that they were initially.His light brown hair becomes jet black and he ages about twenty years. She notices the familiar jagged cut in his lip and the former agent feels the blood drain from her face, as if she were seeing a ghost. The man in black gives her a wicked grin that causes her to freeze up once again._

 

“ _Because Quinn.” the man in black says in a low growl unknown to Brody but sounding strangely like someone else she had once known. “You have to atone for what you've done. You only have yourself to blame.”_

 

_The man in black raises his gun to her head and pulls the trigger. The last thing Quinn thinks she sees is her son raising his head and her staring into his expressionless hazel eyes._

 

* * *

 

The senior agent, who was panting and drenched in her own, cold sweat, immediately hops off the couch and lands on her butt on the floor. She reaches for her gun at first,only to realize a few seconds later that she had stored it safely in its lock box. Quinn looks around the dark living room to find nobody there. She closes her eyes and inhales deeply for a moment, reminding herself that it was all another horrible nightmare.

 

When she regains her senses, Quinn stands up and brushes the dust off of her long, plaid pajama bottoms. She turns to the glowing red light of the clock and sees it flashing 3:35 am and sighs.

The agent in charge makes her way to the hall bathroom, stepping over a lightly snoring Jethro in the process. She closes the door softly and turns on the bathroom faucet to cold and waits a couple of seconds. The blond then scoops up some of the water and splashes her face.

 

Quinn can't recall the number of times that her dreams have kept her from sleeping for more than four and a half hours in the four months since Dani's death. Somedays, the dreams were pleasant and left her with a longing of what could have been when she thought about Dani and their unborn child. She thought about the life that they would have given him or her and surprisingly, it was a life didn't include NCIS. What surprised Quinn about those dreams was not the fact that she was no longer at the agency, it was that she seemed content to be the parent to stay home and take care of their hypothetical children. She never saw herself as a stay at home mother like her own mother, she'd always thought that she would be working for NCIS or some other agency until she was either old enough to retire or if a suspect got lucky enough to shoot her. She'd never imagined the warmth that she'd feel waking up to their kids every morning and helping them get ready for school without having to rush or worry about making it to the office on time to be read into their next case.

 

When she and Dani first talked about having kids three years ago, Quinn resigning from her position at NCIS was never a point of contingency for the two of them. Dani knew how much the agent in charge loved her job and the former secret service agent would never ask her to give that up. The same was true for Dani, even though the brunette had told her that she wouldn't mind if it came down to that. As much as Dani loved NCIS and the people that she worked with, but she never saw herself as a field agent forever. She always saw herself eventually transferring to the FBI, specifically their Behavioral Science Unit to work as a profiler. After everything with Brody began, Quinn noticed that her interest and determination to transferring into the FBI grow.

 

Two weeks ago, as she was going through the items that Rachel had found in Dani's desk, the agent in charge learned just how serious her wife was about leaving the agency. There was an unsigned request for transfer letter in her desk with Terri's name on it, as well as the results of her blood tests that confirmed her pregnancy and an unfinished application for transfer into the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit. Either way, the team was going to have to say goodbye to her sooner rather than later. Unfortunately for Quinn and the others, that time came sooner than they expected it to.

 

Then there were the other dreams. They were the ones that were so vivid, they had her waking up in a cold sweat and desperately reaching around the room for her service weapon. The dreams varied in the brutality that Dani or herself would suffer. Sometimes, the agent in charge, Dani and Puckerman would be back on the roof with the breeze flowing through her hair, waiting for the killing shot. Sometimes, Puck or Evans or Lopez alternated as the victims and as Dani attempted to revive him is when Brody would kill her too. Sometimes Quinn could swear that she could see herself from a distance making the killing shot instead of Brody. The only constant within the agent in charge's nightmares is the fact that she was frozen and helpless to do anything about the carnage that lay before her. There was nothing that she could do to save Dani or the rest of her team as she stood nearby and watched them die. That inherent feeling of helplessness is what haunted Quinn's nightmares most nights.

 

But tonight they were different, the worse than the nightmares have ever been for her. Tonight, she watched the family that Dani and herself had always talked about having perish right in front of her eyes and she was powerless to stop it. He came into her own home and within the span of a few minutes, slaughtered each and every member of their little family without blinking an eyelid. Quinn had let that monster come into their home, with their children and destroy their family without doing anything about it. She thought if she couldn't even protect her own family at home, then how was she to be trusted to protect her team when they needed her most?

 

The disturbed blond opens the glass door to her medicine cabinet and pulls out the sealed, orange translucent bottle with big red pills inside. During her mandatory counseling sessions, she confided to the company therapist, Dr. Thornton that she was having trouble sleeping. He had recommended that she take these for whenever she couldn't sleep. He said that the pills would knock her out right away and she would go into a dreamless sleep.

 

She's has always been hesitant when it came to taking medication after witnessing her father's increased dependence on alcohol and prescription pills to get through the day as a kid. Quinn didn't want to rely on pills, unless it was absolutely necessary for her to be on them, and end up on the same spiral that her father spent years recovering from. For most of her injuries, if they weren't serious, she would try her best to continue on through her pain and if that failed, then she would resort to the occasional tylenol or two and a glass of water.

 

Quinn opens her eyes and takes one last glance at the orange bottle with pills filled to the brim. She closes the door of the medicine cabinet when she's done and sighs.

 

The senior agent opens the bathroom door and turns off the light and resigns to get ready for her day, with the last thing on her mind being how long her mind and her body could keep up at this pace before they both break down?

 

 

* * *

 

**8:55 am**

**Jesse St. James' office**

 

 

Rachel twists around in the hard chair and crosses her ankles together, as she waits for the director to arrive. When she feels like she is comfortable in the seat, Rachel straightens her back in the chair and primly sets her hands on top of her right knee.

 

A yawn unexpectedly escapes her lips and the brunette raises her hand to her mouth to cover it up some. She was a little more tired than she usually was in the morning and it's all thanks to the phone call she'd received from Director St. James. Why he felt it necessary to call her before the sun came up, Rachel will never know.

 

Their conversation was brief, with Jesse telling her that he wanted to see her in his office an hour before she was supposed to be in for work. When she asked him why, he sounded hesitant to talk to her on the phone about it, but he promised her that she wasn't in any trouble or anything of that nature. Which made the former liaison sigh in relief.

 

Ever since her take down of the archaeologist and her dinner with Quinn, the relationships that she's had with certain members the team has gotten better. Quinn has allowed her to do more than just watch them investigate or take pictures of the crime scene. The senior agent even allowed her to do a solo interrogation of a recent suspect when Jesse needed her for something else. Outside of work on the other hand, the two of them saw each other a little more now that Rachel has settled into the neighborhood.

 

Sometimes, Rachel would stop by the blonde's house after her morning run on the weekends to see how she was doing. Eventually, Rachel's visits to the senior agent's basement became as routine as her morning run. It only took a couple of visits to the Fabray residence before she figured out that the one place Rachel would most likely find Quinn on her days off is in her basement. She would say hello to the blonde and maybe get a grunt or a quick nod back before Quinn would go back to work. Rachel would sit there for an hour and watch the senior agent work on what looked to be a boat before Quinn would ask what she needed. Sometimes Rachel would talk about her day or give her updates on Beth or her father. The senior agent would respond with the occasional fleeting grin or a huff when called for. During one of her visits, Rachel confided to Quinn about her bi-weekly lunches with Jesse.

 

For a moment, Quinn looked like she wanted to ask Rachel to elaborate, but then she would think better of it and go back to her boat.

 

It wasn't until her fourth visit, when the former Mossad liaison had the courage to ask the senior agent about her boat and if she planned on sailing it when she was done. Quinn turned around and said that the boat's name was the SS Russell the second and then she went back to work.

 

The non answers that she was receiving from the senior agent were a bit frustrating at times. But Rachel also knew that if she tried to force the blonde agent into talking about her life when she wasn't ready to, the fragile repertoire that she was beginning to build with the closed off woman to shatter. So she would have to wait for the senior agent to open up to her for now. Too bad waiting was never a strong suit for the former liaison.

 

Although she hadn't made much progress on her relationship with Quinn, Rachel did find herself getting closer to Sam and Puck. The last couple of months, the two men made more of an effort to integrate her into their conversations and banter at work. Occasionally, they would invite her out to get drinks with them after work, where she learned about the many impressions that Sam was capable of doing after he's had a couple of drinks. She also learned that Puck was a bit of an emotional drunk. He would talk about his sister and mother back in Baltimore and how he hates the fact that he doesn't get to see him as often as he should.

 

When the subject of absentee fathers came up, he would rail on about his father and how much of a deadbeat dad he was. He said that whenever he had a kid, he would make sure to be ten times the man his father ever was to him. Puck would then look at her wistfully and ask her how good of a father Brody was to Beth before he died and that was when Rachel normally ended their conversations there, not necessarily ready to talk about him just yet. She could barely open up to the therapist that she was seeing about how she really felt about the father of her child or the heavy toil that their relationship took on her soul. And as much as Rachel has come tor respect Noah, she certainly wasn't about to have this conversation with someone she's only known for a couple of months.

 

Last weekend, Rachel invited the two agents to swim in her pool and play with Beth a few days ago. She mostly needed them to move in the patio set that she had bought for the deck of her house. But when they were done, she gave them free reign to her pool when they were finished as a thank you. Puck playfully picked her up and threw her into the pool, while Sam stayed in the shallow end of the pool and splashed happily along with Beth. Puck did try to hit on her a few of times during the afternoon, but Rachel wrote it off as Puck being Puck and swam away from him and joined Beth and Sam in the shallow end. The two NCIS agents left by seven that night, promising to her place more often, solely for the pool.

 

Rachel wishes Tina and Santana were as easy to please as Puck and Sam were. When Santana wasn't making snide remarks, at her expense most of the time, she routinely ignored any input Rachel would make. Whenever the former liaison was around and Santana happened to be having a conversation with the boys, the junior agent would abruptly stop talking and pretend to be doing some work if it meant that she could ignore her existence.

 

Whenever Puck and Sam did include her in their conversations, Santana would sigh or roll her eyes and then tuning out of the rest of the conversation entirely. Rachel had tried a few times to make conversation with Santana and get to know her a little, but the junior agent would act as if she didn't hear her. She would have invited her over to her house this weekend for their spontaneous pool party, but she figured that Santana would make up an excuse to avoid spending any time with her outside of work than was necessary or snidely decline the invitation.

 

Tina on the other hand, outright ignored her. Even though she's insisted that the forensic scientist call her by her given name Rachel, Tina always calls her Agent Berry. The former liaison also noticed that whenever she was alone with Sam, she would catch Tina not so subtlety glare at the two of them from the corner of her eye. By the way she's seen Tina interact with Sam though, when the two of them worked together and how they would tease each other and make little inside jokes meant for just the two of them. There was obviously must have been something going on with them, Rachel just hasn't had the opportunity to ask either one of them about it. But the former liaison thinks that the forensic scientist's animosity for her may have had to do with him.

 

Rachel had no interest in Sam outside of a potential friendship. He was good looking, charming in his own geeky little way and good with Beth, but she could not see the probie as anything more than a little brother she's always wished her fathers could have adopted. Maybe if she made this clear to Tina, the scientist wouldn't be as hostile to her as she's been lately.

 

The door creeks open, causing Rachel to turn around. Jesse, who seemed to be preoccupied with the stack of papers in his hand, opens the door wider and steps into his office. He feels another presence in the room, causing him to look up from his papers.

 

“Agent Berry. Nice of you to join me this morning and on time.” Jesse greets as he makes his way over to his desk. “If only I could your boss to show me the same courtesy from time to time.”

 

Rachel laughs and sits up straighter in the chair. “It's good to see you, director.”

 

“Rachel, there's no need for such formalities before work-” Jesse lightly chastises her, with a fond smile. “It's okay to call me Jesse here and when there's no one else is around. We've known each other way too long for that anyway.”

 

“Alright, _Jesse_.” Rachel emphasizes sarcastically as she leans back in the chair with a smirk. “It won't happen again. ”

 

“Good.” Jesse replies, setting his paper down on the desk, shuffling it a little. When he's done, the director looks up at “So how's my goddaughter doing? I haven't seen her in a while-”

 

“And who's fault is that?” Rachel asks incredulously. “I invited you to come over to see my new place last weekend, but you were too busy with your model. What was her name? Cameron? Clara? Sophie?”

 

“Her name was Chloe.” Jesse corrects her, slightly annoyed. “And I guarantee you, she won't be a problem anymore.”

 

Rachel's look softens and she gazes at him sympathetically. “I'm really sorry Jesse. What happened?”

 

Jesse sighs and leans back in his big, leather chair. “The usual of course. The first couple of dates I blew her off for were fine because I told her I would make up for it on date number three, which I did. It wasn't until I received a call on said date that was going to take me away is when she realized she couldn't deal with it anymore.”

 

“She left you over a call from work?” Rachel asks disbelievingly, crossing her legs in the process. “She had to have known that something like that would happen from time to time. You are the director for a law enforcement agency.”

 

“I don't think she would have left me if it _were_ a work call.” Jesse says sheepishly, looking away from the brunette in the chair. Rachel raises her eyebrow at him and sighs. “It was a call from one of her friends from the agency she works at-”

 

“Jesse!” Rachel says exasperatedly. “Really? Her friend?!”

 

“Hey!” Jesse says pointing at her. “It's not my fault Chloe and I had the same amount of chemistry with each other that I would have with my mother! The spark just wasn't there and I moved on! It's not my fault that she didn't know that we were having a break up dinner, is it?! Besides, do you really think that she had any right to dump that large bucket of ice on top of me? She totaled my best suit!”

 

Rachel rolls her eyes at the director, suddenly feeling sorry for Chloe and not blaming her dumping the director at the restaurant. She knew that the director could be a good guy when he really wanted to be. But there were sometimes where she just wanted to smack some sense into the egotistical head of her dense friend.

 

Jesse was lucky that he hadn't attempted the same stunt during their brief relationship back in college. She doesn't think she would have been as forgiving or dignified about it as Chloe had been.

 

“Jesse, you'll never change will you?” Rachel asks tiredly. “You take one step forward and ten steps back when it comes to relationships, don't you?”

 

“At least I'm putting myself out there.” Jesse says defensively. “Unlike some people I know. And before you say anything, I wasn't just referring to you. I have other friends you know.”

 

“As shocking as that is, yes I do.” Rachel muttered, looking away from Jesse as she said it. Choosing not to dignify the NCIS director's dating inquiry with a response. She's told Jesse, ever since she called the former agent two years ago about her suspicions about Brody's fidelity, that she just was not ready to get back into the dating pool. Her focus right now was solely on raising Beth and not who was hoping in and out of her bed every week.

 

The former liaison certainly wasn't going to tell him that she has been rethinking her celibacy stance as of late, especially when it involves someone that the director may know. He would never let either one of them live it down if he knew. He'd probably harass the both of them until they went out with each other for the sole purpose of getting him to back off of them. And Rachel thought that it wouldn't be the best way to start a new romantic relationship.

 

Not that it was ever going to happen in the first place.

 

So the former liaison decides to change topics and steer clear of the topic of her dating life for now anyway. Rachel was sure that when they were in a not so professional setting, that the director would bring up and grill her about the topic once again.

 

“To answer your first question, your goddaughter is doing fine for the most part” Rachel tells him. “ Although she was a little terror this morning, especially when I told her that she would be going to daycare an hour earlier than usual because mommy had to meet with Uncle Jesse at his office.”

 

The toddler had been a little more difficult than usual in getting ready for the morning. Beth had one of her rare nightmares the night before. Rachel had to go into the toddler's room and bring her to her own bed. She sang softly in the two year old's ear until she could feel her breathing even out at around two am. The former liaison fell asleep almost immediately afterwards, but was unfortunately awakened by Jesse's call three and a half hours later, telling her that he would like to see her in the office.

 

Rachel had the unfortunate task of waking the toddler up an hour later to get her ready for the day. In traffic, the ride from their home to the Naval Yard is about an hour commute. So she and Beth usually get up about two hours early in order for the former liaison to have enough time to get the toddler to her daycare before breakfast.

 

Beth spent the morning fighting her about getting dress. The two year old wanted to go to daycare in her yellow Belle pajamas, while Rachel tried to convince her that going to school in her pajamas wasn't appropriate. Her daughter then spent the next twenty minutes yelling and screaming her head off until the former Mossad liaison finally snapped and yelled at her back using her full name. Beth then spent the rest of the morning ignoring her and only slightly complying when she placed her in her booster seat. She felt bad for yelling at the toddler, who was understandably tired, so she even tried to apologize by letting her slip in a pre-breakfast snack before daycare. But her daughter crossed her arms over herself and refused to acknowledge her mother.

 

When they arrived at the daycare and Rachel was signing Beth in, she remembers how her little one sprinted out of her arms and ignored the goodbye that she tried to give the toddler.

 

Rachel was almost relieved at the pile of paperwork, that she was sure had to belong to Agent Lopez, that was waiting for her to do at her desk before her meeting with Jesse. Then she wouldn't have to think about how she's felt like she was becoming Hiram 2.0 in her daughter's eyes.

 

At least until now.

 

Jesse grimaced. “That bad huh?”

 

“It was actually much worse.” Rachel admits sighing. “Once she got done yelling and screaming as if I were trying to kill her by making her wear actual clothes to daycare instead of her pajamas. This was of course after I yelled at her and used her full name to make my point.”

 

“I always hated when parents do that.” Jesse mutters to himself. “ It's like they give you a middle name for the sole purpose of using it against you when you've done something wrong.”

 

“Apparently you and Beth feel the same way.” Rachel says. “Because she refused to look at me during the entire ride there. I tried to bribe her with her favorite snack, but she wouldn't take it. And as soon as we get to the sign in desk, she walks away from me and doesn't give me the chance to say goodbye.”

 

“I'm sorry Rachel.” Jesse apologizes, feeling guilty about causing chaos between Beth and Rachel. “I should have waited until I was in the office before I called you.”

 

“It's not your fault Jesse.” Rachel says dismissively, but touched at the fact that her friend cares enough to apologize. “You didn't know about Beth's nightly nightmares.”

 

“Nightmares?” Jesse asks, staring at the new agent with concern etched in his eyes.

 

“Beth's been having a hard time adjusting to her new surroundings, specifically to her new sleeping arrangements.” Rachel explains. “She's been doing better than expected since daddy Leroy left last month, but the last couple of days have been hard on her.”

 

Jesse nods, still not feeling any better about the fact that his goddaughter was having trouble sleeping. “Do you think she'll need to talk to someone, a child psychologist or therapist?”

 

“No, I don't think she'll need to.” Rachel tells him with a small smile. “I think she'll be fine. She's just going to have to get used to her new room and living in DC is all.”

 

“Well, maybe a day out with Uncle Jesse this weekend with help soothe some of those nightmares. While her mommy takes the day and afternoon to rest and relax with a nice glass of wine.” Jesse offers. “You know, to make up for being a jerk and neglecting my my duties and responsibilities as godfather.”

 

“We would both appreciate that very much.” Rachel says brightly. “Thank you Jesse. You're the best.”

 

Jesse then takes a deep breath and sighs. “Yeah well, lets hope you still feel that way after I deliver my news to you.”

 

Rachel looks at him questioningly. “What's going on?”

 

He hesitates for a couple of moments before he goes on. Jesse's posture tenses in the chair and his lips form into a thin line.

 

“I didn't just call you into my office this morning to talk about my fantastic goddaughter. Although that was a plus.” Jesse starts off saying. “I wanted to talk about you about your transfer to NCIS.”

 

Rachel sits up a little and straightens herself out in the chair.

 

“The CIA accepted your transfer and Director Martinez wanted me to tell you that he wishes you the best of luck at NCIS and how you'll always have a place there, should your gig here not work out.” Jesse tells her with a smile. “So congratulations Rachel, you are now officially a Special Agent for NCIS.”

 

Rachel eyes him suspiciously, noticing that he made no mention of Mossad or her father.

 

“What about Mossad? Did my father accept my resignation?” Rachel asks.

 

Jesse's smile drops at the question and he begins to bite his lip. The liaison figured that it couldn't be good, since that was one of Jesse's nervous tells. Right now, the director is trying to decide whether or not he should lie to her and make her even more upset than he knows that she is going to be. Or if he should rip the band aid off now and tell her the truth?

 

“That's a little more complicated, Rachel.” Jesse says after a few minutes.

 

“How so?” Rachel asks impatiently.

 

“Your father and I had a very long and enlightening discussion about your position at Mossad and what your transferring would mean for their agency.” Jesse explains. “Director Berry thinks that you are a very valuable asset to his intelligence division. Having you resign when you still have a number of years left on your contract with Mossad, he claims, will be at an inconvenience to the agency. So he chose to resend your resignation and encourages you to honor your contract with them.”

 

“I can't believe this!” Rachel exclaims angrily. “He can't do this! I resigned! He can't force me to work there when I've already got a position with another agency! Hiram can't force me to work for him if I decided to resign!”

 

“Unfortunately Rachel, he can and he is.” Jesse replies calmly, even though he's just as upset about the Mossad Director's noncompliance with his request. “I tried to argue with him on your behalf that you were an asset to NCIS now and that he had no claim to you anymore if that's what you wanted. But unfortunately, you contract is ironclad. You have to continue on with your contract with Mossad.”

 

Rachel shrinks into her seat. “So you're sending me back over to Tel Aviv?”

 

“No.” Jesse replies. “We managed to come up with an arrangement that would benefit everyone involved.”

 

“Which is?” the brunette asks resignedly. Rachel knew there was no point in trying to contest or fight with Hiram. No one says no to Hiram, not even his own flesh and blood. Rachel wanted to slap herself for thinking that she would ever be able to walk away from Hiram cleanly.

 

“You'll resume your position as liaison to Mossad, but this time it'll be for NCIS.” Jesse explains to her. “Hiram will contact you every so often and you'll report to him when requested. He promised that he won't make you go there like he had you do with the CIA.”

 

Rachel crosses her arms and bites the inside of her lip to keep herself from lashing out at Jesse. It wasn't his fault her father was being a pompous ass. He was only doing what he was being told to do, much like everyone around Hiram usually does.

 

“What about Beth?” Rachel asks. “Part of what I used to do required me to go overseas and I don't see how I can do that now that my father Leroy and I aren't in the same state anymore. I can't just leave her here alone.”

 

“Don't worry about that Rachel, we talked about that as well.” Jesse says understandingly. “I told him that I couldn't afford to send one of my agents overseas frequently for Mossad assignments because of our budget constraints. Hiram said that he understood that and he would do his best to make sure that you would not have to go overseas for any missions unless it was absolutely necessary for you to be there. You would just have to report to one of the Mossad agents stationed here in DC.”

 

Rachel places her hands in her head and sighs. She couldn't believe that this was all happening. She's never hated Hiram as much as she hates him now for using his muscle to try and keep tabs on her life. She knew his refusal to accept her resignation had nothing to do with her being a pertinent asset to his agency. He has other agents out there who were better than her and who were willing to go farther than she ever wished to go. This was about him keeping his control over her after she showed him her back bone after the Brody incident. She dared to defy him and now Hiram was going to make her pay for it.

 

Jesse gave his new agent a few minutes to herself to digest the news. He hated what Hiram was doing to his agent as much as she had. When the soon to be Mossad director had called him the night before, he wanted to hang up on the man and tell him to go stuff it when he told Jesse of his intent to not accept her resignation and what how he wanted to go forward from here on out. Hiram then went into vivid details about how he already had living arrangements in place for Rachel and Beth. The Mossad director even went as far as having Beth registered at a private preschool in Tel Aviv. For the first time in Jesse St. James' thirty-four years of life, he was left speechless.

 

He had learned through observing the new Mossad director, as well as some of the occasional conversations that he had with Rachel in the past, about Hiram's controlling behavior. But he had never really seen it before their conversation last night. Jesse admittedly, chalked up some of Rachel's disparaging remarks against her father as just his friend having a flare for the dramatics, being a former actress and all. But now that he has seen it first hand how far Hiram's control and influence over the brunette truly extended, a part of him felt terrible for doubting his friend's accusations in the first place. Jesse's own father had been a bit of a hard ass when he was alive, but even he wouldn't have gone to the lengths that Hiram was going through to keep Rachel under control. He couldn't imagine how growing up with the new Mossad director was like and coming out of it as level headed as Rachel seemed to be.

 

When he managed to zone back into the conversation, the NCIS director explained to Hiram that NCIS could not afford to have one of their agents serve the agency part time and have her gone as often as Hiram wanted her to be. Jesse went on to explain that the team that Rachel had been placed on, was already down two agents and how they could not afford to have their latest probationary agent to be there on a part time basis, especially with the case load that the team had piled up. The curly haired agent may have also neglected to mention that the team that Rachel was placed on was Agent Fabray's and gave him a random agent in charge's team name, that he knew off the top of his head. He knew that if he mentioned that Rachel was on Agent Fabray's team, that the Mossad director would do everything in his power to make sure that Rachel would be on the next available flight to Tel Aviv and away from NCIS.

 

Hiram still wasn't over the fact that Quinn had shot one of his operatives in cold blood, in spite of everything that Brody had done. The director even went as far as calling the senior agent a 'monster' and an 'irresponsible loose canon who would have been stripped of her badge, had she been one of his operatives'. For a while, the Mossad director was petitioning for the senior agent to stand before Mossad and answer for what she did, but Jesse managed to convince him that what his best friend did was necessary for the safety and protection of her team and people within the DC metro area.

 

Hiram, of course, tried to argue with Jesse about the necessity of Rachel's participation in some of the open investigations that Mossad had going on and how they could not do that if they could not brief her properly. And the NCIS director assured the Mossad director that Rachel would have access to MTAC if she needs to speak with any of her charges or need to be briefed on her cases with Mossad. They spent the next two hours going back and forth with one another about Rachel's role in NCIS and Mossad before they finally came to a conclusion that satisfied Hiram for the moment.

 

Jesse knew that this would not be the last say that Hiram had on the matter. The Mossad director would not stop until he got his way and Rachel was back in Tel Aviv. Luckily for Rachel, Jesse would have the liaison out of her contract with Mossad before that happens. He already had some of the lawyers at NCIS working on finding a loophole that he may have missed, hoping that would be the key to getting Rachel out of Hiram's grasp.

 

But until that time comes, they would both just have to placate the Mossad director's demands and hope that when Hiram finds out that Rachel was on Quinn's team, that the senior agent would not do anything that would antagonize the Mossad director.

 

Rachel finally lifts her head out of her hands and stares at Rachel tiredly.

 

“There's no way of getting out of this, is there?” Rachel inquires dejectedly.

 

“Not right now, I'm afraid.” Jesse tells her sympathetically. “But I promise you Rachel that I am working on it. I've got some of the best lawyers within the agency scouring through that contract to find anything that may get you out of it. Until then-”

 

“I'm stuck with him.” Rachel finishes bitterly. “You realize he's only doing this because I decided I was done being his puppet, do you?”

 

“I kind of figured that out forty-five minutes in, while he was reading me his prime directive.” Jesse jokes lightly with a small smile. “Who knew Hiram Berry was capable of speaking for long stretches of time like that.”

 

“Hiram Berry is capable of doing a lot of things that you wouldn't expect him to.” Rachel mutters darkly, causing all traces of a smile to drop from Jesse's face.

 

“I'm really sorry Rachel.” Jesse apologizes. “I wish there was more I could do for you.”

 

“It's not your fault Jesse.” Rachel dismisses as she stands up from the chair. “My father always gets what he wants in the end. No matter what it takes or how long it takes.”

 

As Rachel turns around and heads for the door, Jesse stands up from his desk and makes his way towards the door.

 

“Wait Rachel, don't go.” Jesse says as he places his hand on her elbow and leads her back over to the chair. Rachel reluctantly follows his lead, even though she would have done anything to be away from his office at the moment. “Andrea ordered something from that vegan place you took me to a couple of weeks ago and it turns out, they serve breakfast as well.”

 

“So why do you need me here again, Jesse?” Rachel asks. “Do you want me to sit here and watch you eat breakfast?”

 

“No, I was hoping that you would join me actually.” Jesse tells her with a smile. “I ordered enough breakfast to feed a small army and I know I won't be able to finish it all myself and I'd hate for all of this food to go to waste. Or I would be force to put it all in the fridge and wait for Puck and Sam to demolish it all, like they do anything else.”

 

Rachel chuckles lightly with her smile not reaching her eyes and slightly pats Jesse's hand in thanks.

 

She nods in acceptance of his invitation and sits back down in her chair, silently fuming and cursing the man she once called her father. Mostly, the Mossad operative was angry at herself, for signing her freedom away all those years ago. When she naively wanted to save the world and help people by working with Mossad.

 

* * *

 

**9:30 am**

**The Bullpen**

 

 

“I told you we didn't have enough time to stop at that sad excuse for a diner before work.” Santana snaps at the other junior agent furiously as she walks in step with Agent Puckerman and past a couple of other agents walking the opposite direction, to the entrance of the bullpen. “But did you listen, no. You just had to order a week's worth of food and slurp it down in ten minutes!”

 

Puck glances over to Santana through his dark sunglasses and rolls his eyes. “Would you relax, Lopez. We still got to work on time.”

 

“Only because you turned your sirens on.” Santana argues while she points her index finger towards the mohawked agent's chest. “Which by the way, Q is going to be really pissed when she finds out you did that again.”

 

The junior agents walk through their bullpen's doors and walk over to their respective desks.

 

“The boss won't check that until next week, which gives me plenty of time to come up with some half assed excuse as to why I had my sirens on before work. Puck says nonchalantly, as he sets his messenger bag down on his desk. “Besides that doesn't matter now. What matters is we're here on time, as far as the boss knows, since she's obviously not here right now-” He points towards the clear and unoccupied desk of the senior agent. “So our asses are safe to fight crime and annoy Evans for another day.”

 

Santana slumps down in her chair and looks over at their bosses desk. She hates to concede to any of the junior agent's arguments, but he did have a point. It looks like Agent Fabray has yet to arrive. The brunette found that suspicious because the senior agent would normally be at her desk, grunting through piles of paperwork or on the phone at around this time in the morning.

 

Maybe the blonde had a meeting before hand, which is almost guarantees that she'll likely come in later than the rest of them. At least that is what the junior agent hopes to have happen. But with all the good luck she's been having as of late, her baby finally going into the big, wide parking lot in the sky and all of the begging she's had to subject herself to in order to get Puckerman to be her chauffeur to and from work until she can get another car. Santana wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the senior agent was hiding under her desk just waiting to bite hers and Puckerman's heads off for being late again.

 

For now, Santana will revel in the small victory that her boss so far, is nowhere to be found.

 

He places his black jacket on the back of the chair and logs into his computer. He looks over at the desk across from his, looking forward to see the desk's occupant discreetly grinning at their conversation. Then he would take his attention away from whatever Sam and Santana were arguing about and send a look in her direction. He would mimic his two colleagues or mouth something that only Rachel would understand, making the new brunette blush or roll her eyes at him depending on what he said . Unfortunately for Puck, he didn't have an opportunity to work his charm because the boss would choose that exact moment to brief them on a case or yell at him to get to work. This had become their secret morning routine over the last couple of months.

 

He frowns and turns back to his computer when he notices that the brunette was not there.

 

What seems to catch the mohawked agent off guard was the fact that he actually cared that Rachel hadn't shown up to work yet and that their routine had been broken.

 

The last few months that Rachel's been on the team, Puck's learned more than he would have normally liked to, about the Mossad operative. She listened to this weird house like music that the former operative claims is all the rage in the clubs in Tel Aviv. When she's really focused on her paperwork, Rachel stuck her tongue out a little and for a passing moment Puck thought that it was cute, even if he'll never admit to it. Rachel also had a tendency to throw her head back and snort a little if she thought something was really funny or when Sam was doing one of his lame impressions. She color codes and has her desk organized to an almost obsessive degree. She also gets this little twinkle in her eyes wen she's telling a story about Beth and something the toddler had done or learned about. And not once did the junior agent find himself rolling his eyes at it at all. In fact, it made him adore and want to spend more time with the two year old.

 

Hell, he even knew the way that she loved the veggie wrap from Will's Place, where the team frequently gets their lunches. Puck could nearly recite her order, from the temperature that she prefers the chef to saute the vegetables at to how she asks them to leave the wrap whole because Rachel happened to see the chef neglected to wipe the knife off before he cut into her wrap. The junior agent could have sworn that he saw one of the veins in Rachel's neck throb as she tersely asked him not to cut hers.

 

Seeing her and being around her had strangely become the new highlight of his day, outside of annoying Santana and Tina's hugs. When Rachel talked, Puck actually listened to her instead of tune her out like he did with all of the other women who have come through his life, with the exception of the boss that is. He thinks that he just likes listening to her speak and he doesn't really care about what she is saying. The mohawked agent has even started to be a little nicer to Evans lately because Rachel always gets on him when he's to hard on the probie. Okay so he wasn't completely nice to Evans all the time, just whenever Rachel happened to be in earshot of the two of them. Puck didn't know what it was about Rachel that made him not want to be himself in such a short amount of time and he wasn't quite sure how happy he was about all of the changes yet or what to make of him.

 

The last girl that the junior agent had taken a shine to was Dani. But even with her, the mohawked agent couldn't completely change the man that he was for her. Puck still went out and brought home women, despite his feelings for Dani. He still hit on nearly every woman that worked in the office, most of the time in front of Dani. Try as he might to get Dani to see him as more than just the annoying guy at work who hit on her every five seconds or made lewd comments about his sex life that would get the HR department on his ass for harassment, she just wasn't interested. At the time, he hadn't been aware that the boss managed to steal Dani's heart right from under his nose and that he didn't stand a chance.

 

With Rachel though, Puck tried his hardest to keep his flirting down to a minimum, so that the women wouldn't get the wrong idea. He only talked about his conquests when he was sure Rachel was out of earshot. Not that it'd help much since Santana would do the honors and retell the story to the other brunette when she returned anyway.

 

For some reason though, one that escapes Puck's capacity to think of, Rachel was different. Maybe its because he sees that he has more of a chance with her than he had with Dani, seeing as the boss had not shown much interest in her outside of work. Or maybe it had to do with the fact that Rachel is the kind of woman that he could honestly see himself settling down with. He could see himself bring Rachel and Beth home with him to Baltimore to meet his mother and sister. Or showing them off to his old friends in the neighborhood so they could see how well the former punk teenager has done well for himself. He can imagine Hanukkah's and Christmas' at Rachel's dad's place in New York. And maybe taking a trip to Tel Aviv every other summer or so without having the urge to vomit all over the place.

 

There was no doubt in the in junior agent's mind that he was starting to develop feelings for Berry, if he wasn't already in love with her. The only question Agent Puckerman had to ask himself is when he should make his move on the former Mossad liaison?

 

He looks away from the empty desk and turns his body in the direction of his partner typing on the computer.

 

“Lopez, have you heard from Rachel today?” Puck asks curiously.

 

Santana stops and looks away from the monitor, with her eyebrow raised in the junior agent's direction.

 

“Do I look like Pippi Longstocking's keeper to you?” Santana responds annoyed and then goes back to typing. “Why do _you_ care anyway?”

 

“I only asked because she wasn't at her desk this morning.” the junior agent says nonchalantly as he tries to play off his concern about the new agent.

 

Santana rolls her eyes but doesn't look away from the monitor. “You were in the car with me all morning. If the smurf had the audacity to call me, do you honestly think I wouldn't complain about it on the ride over here and then some?”

 

Puck nodded his head and sighed and looks up at his pacing probie. He picks up his pen and starts twirling it around between his fingers.

 

“If you're so concerned about your imaginary girlfriend's whereabouts, why don't you ask the pacing poster child for lip augmentation over there, since he didn't literally just get here.” Santana says pointing to their frustrated colleague as he argues on the phone. She misses the way the junior agent's pen drops unceremoniously on the floor at the mention of a girlfriend.

 

The mohawked agent takes her advice and gets out of his chair and makes his way to the probie.

 

Sam comes to a stop in the middle of the bullpen, right in front of the boss' desk and he sighs and puffs his cheeks out in frustration as he is placed on hold for the sixth time this morning.

 

Puck wraps his arm around his probie and he feels the agent stiffen under his grip.

 

“Hey probie!” Puck says excitedly as he ruffles Sam's hair.

 

“Whatcha doing? Having an argument with your avatar girlfriend or whatever the hell you geeky kids use for girlfriends these days?”

 

The probationary agent abruptly shoves him away and glares at him.

 

“Piss off Puck.” Sam orders as he uses his free hand to cover the mouthpiece of the phone. “I'm on the phone.”

 

“I can see that.” Puck says sternly, as he straightens his posture and crosses his arms defensively. “Well I hope you had as much time to complete those databases as you do to talk on the phone with your siri girlfriend.”

 

“I finished them all yesterday.” the probationary agent says annoyed, as he turns away from Puck.

 

Puck walks away from the probationary agent and moves over to his desk. He picks up the thick file, which was the first on the probationary agent's pile labeled 'Puck' in a black Sharpie. He skims it over and nods at the thoroughness of the list.

 

“Good job probie.” Puck congratulates him as he flips through another page of the large file. “I would have said you did a great job had this file been on my desk yesterday.”

 

Sam turns around and glares at him. “Gee, I'm so sorry Puck, but I didn't think that a list of all the nudie bars throughout the DC area was all that important.” The probationary agent turns away from him again. “What's that list for anyway? Last time I checked, we don't have any cases involving nudie bars?”

 

Hearing the words 'nudie' and 'bar' together causes Santana to look up from her monitor and over to her coworkers in renewed interest.

 

“Oh poor little virgin Mary.” Santana says with a predatory smile. “I don't think you want to know the answer to that question. Knowing Puckerman for as long as I have, it could be anything.”

 

The mohawked agent looks up from the files and glares at his two coworkers.

 

“Not that I have to explain myself to a _probationary agent_ or a _low level junior agent_ ” Puck says condescendingly. “But if you must know, I'm throwing a bachelor party for an old frat buddy of mine. He's getting married to a real beast of a woman. And when I say beast, I mean beast.” He leans forward and stage whispers into the probationary agent. “She makes Santana look like Mother Teresa.”

 

“I heard that asshole.” Santana deadpans.

 

“I just want to give him one more night of salacious debauchery, courtesy of the Puckster, before he voluntarily submits himself to an eternity of hell on earth.” Puck finishes.

 

“I don't think smurfette will like the idea of your night of 'salacious debauchery'” Santana teases, watching gleefully as the back of the junior agent's neck turns red and his hand lands on the back of it.

 

“Since when do you have a girlfriend?” Sam asks perplexed. The last time he hung out with Puck at their bar down the street from the naval yard, he was taking home a pretty brunette waitress that had just made twenty and that was a couple of weeks ago.

 

“No I don't probie.” Puck says agitated, flicking the back of the confused agent's mop top. “And fuck you Lopez,Berry's _not_ my girlfriend.”

 

“Not yet, but you're working on it.” Santana mutters sarcastically to herself, but it was loud enough for Puck to hear. He turns his head and glares at the other junior agent, who smirks triumphantly.

 

Realizing that he is playing into her game, once again, he turns away from her and places his attention back on to the probationary agent.

 

“Judging by the way that your conversation was going earlier, it looks like you're in the doghouse with your Siri girlfriend.” Puck says nonchalantly. “So what the hell did you do there?”

 

“I wasn't talking to my girlfriend. Not that I have one to speak of anyway.” Sam corrects him. “I was on the phone with my credit card company.” The probationary agent sighs and hangs up the phone as Sugar Rays' 'Fly' repeats for the fifth time since the representative placed him on hold.

 

He picks the credit statement sitting on the edge of his desk and hands it over to Puck. As he goes down the list of charges, he furrows his eyebrows at one of the anomalies.

 

“Fifty DVD copies of Forrest Hump?” Puck asks curiously and smirks at his probie.

 

Santana abandons the email that she was working on and jets her way over to the two agents reading the paper. She takes the paper out of the other junior agent's hands and reads it disbelievingly. When she reads the words 'Forrest Hump' in the veranda typeface three times before she busts out laughing.

 

“I don't even know what the hell a 'Forrest Hump' is.” Sam says perplexed as he crosses his arms over himself.

 

“It's a porno, probie.” Puck says in a matter of fact way. The two other agents stare at him with a mixture of incredulity and curiosity, the senior junior agent looks down and starts picking at the imaginary lent on his tie.

 

“Or so I've been told.” Puck says as he clears his throat.

 

Santana rolls her eyes at her colleague, not remotely surprised the junior agent would know about that particular title. She wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the perv indulged in that dvd more than once. The poor thing probably had more scratches than Santana had on her back, thanks to her neighbor's annoying flea bag of a cat.

 

Sam shakes his head at his boss and sighs, not wanting to touch that particular topic at all.

 

“It must be a mistake with the credit card company.” Sam continues on with his morning woes. “ So I called them to try and clear this whole thing up and all they've been doing is stonewalling me all morning.”

 

“I don't know probie.” Santana says with a grin as she browses through the rest of the purchases. “It looks like there's some highly confused, poor lost soul out there whose pretending to be you.”

 

“That can't be true.” Sam shakes his head in denial. “I'm using the best Firewall and virus protection on par with Fort David. And I always make sure that my browser is one hundred percent secure before I use my card. How in the hell could someone get a hold of my information?”

 

“Five grand for a John Deere tractor?” Santana points out.

 

“That's a down payment on that combine you've always wanted, Evans.” Puck says as he pats him on the back.

 

“Put that farm equipment on hold Evans.” a new voice says from across the room.

 

The three agents look up to find the senior agent slinking over to her desk without being noticed, which each of them has found creepy and unsettling. The blond agent's hair looks like its all over the place and she is carrying one of the biggest cups of coffee that any of them has ever seen her with. For the most part, she looks pretty put together in her light blue shirt with the selves rolled all the way up to her elbow that goes nicely with her dark blue jeans. The senior agent, who was usually about as stiff as a board or another Marine, was slightly slouched and not as intimidating as she usually was.

 

Not once in the ten minutes since her arrival in the bullpen did Agent Fabray doesn't look up from her task as she tosses her brief case in her leather chair and opens the drawer, where her gun was always stored. The three other agents can tell that the boss has had another rough night on her hard as nails couch. And when the boss has a rough night, especially if it is going to be at the beginning of a case, that meant everyone was going to be as miserable as she seemed to be for however long it was going to take for them to solve this case.

 

When the boss finally gets done putting away and gathering her things though, the three agents worst fears are confirmed. The circles around her eyes make it look like she's gone a couple of rounds with Manny Pacquiao was in his prime.

 

The three agents slowly separate themselves from one another and turns to face their boss fully.

 

“A sailor was shot on Route 249.” Quinn informs them tiredly, with her voice still sounding a bit rough.

 

The three agents nod and listen intently.

 

“Puckerman, grab the gear.” The junior agent in question walks away without saying a word and quietly collects their gear.

 

“Green acres.” Quinn deadpans as she tosses the keys in the probationary agent's direction, causing a ghost of a smile to appear on Lopez's face. “Get the truck.”

 

Sam takes Puck's lead and quietly slinks away to his duty, leaving the three other agents alone in the bullpen.

 

The junior agent moves away from the boss after a short while and begins to gather her personal items for the new case.

 

The senior agent looks around the bullpen and briefly watches her agents go about their task. She briefly rubs her temples, relieved that the headache started right after her very brief morning jog had started to subside. She didn't know what she would do if her affliction started to get worse before work. The cup of black coffee was just what she needed to function at all this morning and should combat the effects of running on only three hours of sleep.

 

When she looks around the bullpen again, Quinn notices for the first time that the bullpen was unusually quiet. She hadn't had to break Santana out of any verbal sparring matches. Puck was actually paying attention to her and not discreetly looking in the corner desk behind her. And she hadn't heard Sam doing Shatner for what she was sure was the fifteenth time that morning, which could only mean one thing.

 

Rachel Berry hadn't shown up for work this morning.

 

Hazel eyes dart over to the empty desk by the entrance of the bullpen. Quinn wanted to hit herself over the head for not noticing early, if her head hadn't been so focused on its own pain and this new cluster fuck of a case.

 

“Where's Berry?” Quinn asks loudly, to no one in particular.

 

Santana turns to her and is about to answer, when the orange doors of Director St. James' office burst open. The senior agent moves to the center of the room and watches with a glare as a small brunette woman rushes to the stairwell and begins her descent down the stairs.

 

When Rachel reaches the bottom of the stairs, she rushes into the bullpen and stands in front of her desk. She straightens the front of her bangs and brushes down the hairs on her hair that are sticking up. The probationary agent then looks at her boss, just as the blond turns around and starts to walk towards her.

 

The senior agent, who has her gear bag on her shoulder, stands in front of the timid new arrival and glares at her. She lets go of the strap that she's had in a vice grip for the last two minutes and waits for an explanation.

 

“I'm so sorry I was late Quinn. I can explain.” Rachel begins apologetically, looking everywhere but where the fiery red eyes that were glowering at her. “You see Jesse...I mean Director St. James called me in this morning and-”

 

Santana snorts at the brunette's halved ass excuse. Just before she has a chance to make a comment about Rachel's relationship with Jesse, the junior agent finds herself on the tail end of a death glare by the senior agent and wisely decides against finishing her sentence. She looks at the glowering blond, glances at her apologetically and makes her way away from her desk and out of the opposite end of the bullpen.

 

Puck stands up from his position on the floor and stares at the boss and Rachel intently. Truthfully, he was a little frightened for the new agent because she has never truly been on the receiving in of one of Agent Fabray's bad moods. He had been used to them, with Q glowering at him for a little bit and then slapping him in the back of the head when she got tired of him. But Rachel was new and she did not know Quinn like they knew her. He knew that there was a chance that the brunette was going to take whatever the senior agent is about to say personally.

 

He could do the chivalrous thing of course and take the heat off of Rachel and place it on himself. But then again, with the way that the senior agent seemed to be this morning, the blond could make his life a living hell for the foreseeable future that would go way beyond the slaps to the back of the head that he was accustomed to.

 

So the junior agent decides that it is better to keep out of it and let the two of them work it out. He sends one last sympathetic look in Rachel's direction, which he was pretty sure she did not see, and quietly made his way out of the bullpen and to the elevator to meet up with Lopez and Evans.

 

“We were having breakfast and we lost track of the time that I forgot that I was supposed to be downstairs.” Rachel tells her with a tiny quiver in her voice as she kept her gaze down to the floor. The non reaction that she was getting from the blond, was honestly starting to scare her. The senior agent was unusually calm as she stood listening to Rachel's flimsy excuse for her tardiness. There were a hundred different scenarios that were running through Rachel's mind about what she expected the senior agent to do.

 

Having the agent be completely non-responsive however, was not one of those scenarios.

 

After what feels like a lifetime, at least to the new probationary agent, Rachel decides to look her boss in the eye and prepare for whatever punishment the blond was going to conjure up for her late arrival. What the Mossad liaison sees however causes her to gape silently.

 

Although the senior agent was glaring at her, the blond's usually fiery gleam in her eyes had dimmed considerably. Her normally amber colored eyes were now a dull light brown, with all traces of transparency gone. The shadows around her neighbor's eyes were deeper and it looked like she hadn't slept in months.

 

Rachel's frighten gaze softens and she opens her mouth to ask Quinn if she was alright and express concern for the blond's obvious troubles sleeping. A dozen questions were flying through her head about her neighbor's well being and mental state that she wanted to ask. But at the last second, Rachel thought better of it and resignedly kept her questions to herself. Instead, she gives the senior agent a sympathetic glance and then looks away from her boss.

 

“I apologize Agent Fabray. It won't happen again.” Rachel finishes.

 

The senior agent turns away from her and walks in the direction the bullpen's entrance,ignoring Rachel entirely.

 

“You're right Berry.” Quinn says coldly, causing the hairs on Rachel's neck to rise uncomfortably. “It _won't_ happen again.”

 

Rachel sighs and obediently follows her boss without another word.

 

_One step forward. Three hundred steps back. What do I have to do to get you to open up, Quinn?_

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick question. Would anyone be interested in seeing a prequel to this story with Quinn and her original team and Rachel during her time with Mossad? Just wanted to see if anyone one might be interested in that?
> 
> Anyways thanks for reading and I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Reviews are highly appreciated.


	18. Switched Pt. 2

**10:45 am**

**Route 249, Washington DC**

 

The MCRT truck and the black charger pull up and park next to one of the abandoned patrol cars, finding some sense of space away from the scene before them. Further up the road and near the edge cliff side, there were road blockades and a couple of extra cop cars obscuring the entrance of the road way. In front of the guard railing, there were three state troopers surveying the grizzly scene of the crime below.

 

Quinn, Puck, Sam and Rachel, all wearing their NCIS jackets and hats, get out of their respective vehicles and head over towards the embankment, where a tall dark man in a brown Stetson hat in the beige and brown uniform that the state troopers usually wear.

 

Sam and Puck make their way over to the group of state troopers while Quinn and Rachel make their way over to the embankment.

 

“Special Agent Quinn Fabray.” the state trooper introduces himself to the junior agent as he extends his hand to him. “Lieutenant Jody Hampton, we spoke on the phone about our guy down there earlier?”

 

Puck starts to laugh and joke around with the state trooper about his mistake, until he looks over at the real Agent Fabray who looks as far from amused as one could be. Since the boss was in striking distance to the back of his head, Puck decides to play this one straight for once.

 

“Nope, sorry. I'm not Agent Fabray.” Puck corrects him as the lieutenant looks on confused. “The lovely blond woman over there with the smile-” He points to where Quinn and Rachel were staring down at the edge of the embankment examining the scene. “is Special Agent Fabray.”

 

Quinn chooses that moment to turn towards the lieutenant and junior agent for a moment before turning her attention back to the embankment.

 

The state trooper looks at Puck disbelievingly for a moment, as if he couldn't believe that the blond woman was the one in charge. He turns back to Puck and glances at him questioningly. The only confirmation the junior agent provides him is a shrug of his shoulders. He walks away from Lt. Hampton a moment later to find his probie.

 

Lt. Hampton eventually moves away from his spot and walks over to Agent Fabray and the brunette with her. He stops when he gets as close to the edge of the embankment as the two women currently were and fills them in on what's happened.

 

“Agent Fabray.” Lt. Hampton says in a low timber, causing the two women in front of him to turn around. “Lieutenant Hampton. I'm with the Virginia State Police.” Quinn nods but says nothing afterward. “The car's in the crevice at the bottom and the victim's dead inside. The last few yards are pretty steep but one of the EMTs managed to make it all the way down.” Sam, Santana and Puck make their way to either side of the lieutenant and silently listen in on the rest of the trooper's debriefing. “The Fire Department's bringing in special equipment  to extricate the body. It's going to take a while.”

 

Quinn turns away from the embankment and turns to Sam. “Evans.”

 

“Yeah.” Sam answers eagerly, a little too eagerly in Quinn's opinion.

 

“Sketch.” Quinn orders as she points down towards the car. “Get close enough without breaking your neck.”

 

“On it boss.” Sam replies as he walks away from the rest of the group and starts walking down the embankment.

 

“Puckerman.” Quinn says as she looks at her two junior agents. “Take photos. Lopez, you're going to stay here and assist Shelby and Mike when the fire department is able to get to the body.”

 

Santana shakes her head in understanding and walks back over to the medical examiner's truck, where Dr. Corcoran and Mike were prepping.

 

As Quinn walks away from the embankment with the lieutenant, with Rachel trailing behind her, Puck stays stock still in his place, looking at the retreating figure of their boss.

 

When the senior agent notices that her second hadn't moved like everyone else, she turns to him and glares at him impatiently.

 

“What now Puckerman?” Quinn asks irritated. “Is there a problem?”

 

“You didn't say anything about _my_ neck.” Puck whines a little. The junior agent manages to straighten up a little when his boss' glare becomes harder. “But I'll be really careful all the same.”

 

Quinn huffs and walks away from him before she has the chance to throttle him in front of all of these state troopers. She stops when she feels like she's as far away from the other agent as she can get and pinches the bridge of her nose.

 

Rachel, who was not that far behind her, stops when she gets in front of the senior agent. She watches as the senior agent takes a hold of her nose and sighs.

 

“What about me?” Rachel asks as the senior agent looks up and levels a glare in her direction.

 

Quinn turns away from the new agent and ignores her question. She crosses her arms and turns to Lt. Hampton. “Who called it in?”

 

“His wife.” Lt. Hampton answers.  “She was on the phone with him when it happened.”

 

Quinn then turns back to where the new agent was standing and answers her.

 

“Officer Berry, go take her statement.” the senior agent says tersely, eager to get the brunette away from her for a moment.

 

Rachel looks over at the senior agent apprehensively. She may have been a control officer in Mossad, but the brunette had never been good with people. She was too blunt and direct according to her the officers that she worked with in Mossad. For some reason, they thought that her candor would put witnesses off and cause them to shut down. So the only time they ever brought her in for an interrogation was if extra 'measures' needed to be taken for a suspect. That, Rachel found out very quickly, was something that she was way too good at.

 

People on the other hand were not exactly her forte. Most of the time, she couldn't even manipulate her two-year-old daughter into doing what she needed and wanted her to do. So what would make Quinn think that she would be any good at handling witnesses? Especially when said witness is the distraught wife of a soldier who was gunned down while they were on the phone with each other?

 

Rachel inhales. “I don't think that would be a good idea Qui-I mean Agent Fabray.”

 

Quinn turns around on her heel and sends a glare her way that would cut through steel. “And why is that Berry?”

 

The brunette takes a step back away from the senior agent and looks down, rambling on. “What I mean is, that I'm probably not the best person for the job of interviewing a witness. When I was in Mossad the only reason they would ever want me to interview a witness is if the 'interview' is if it involved unsavory means of talking such as-”

 

“Berry stop.” Quinn barks harshly, holding up her hand to stop the junior agent's rant. “Didn't you say you wanted to be more involved with our investigations?”

 

“Yes but I meant-”

 

“And now you're more involved.” Quinn interrupts as she starts to walk away from the junior agent, ending the conversation. “Now deal with it and go interview the wife now”

 

Rachel huffs and glares at the senior agent's fleeting figure in contempt. She hated when the senior agent's dismissive attitude towards her at work and recently it seemed to be worse. She thought they had been making progress. At the very least, she thought that Quinn didn't hate her as much as she had in the beginning, especially after the dinner they had with her father.

 

Apparently, she had been way off base and the imaginary progress she thought she had made with her boss was gone and her thinly veiled contempt has returned.

 

Rachel sighs and walks over to the petty officer’s widow. Her blond hair covered a good portion of her face and her arms were crossed over her chest. She could hear a few sniffles coming from the widow, who had her back against a red car. Her frayed nerves became more so, as her mind started to come up with all of the possible ways this interview could go wrong.

 

She takes a deep breath and tells herself she can do this until she believes it. It was only a couple of questions, it’s not like she was asking for the woman’s life story. Just a couple of questions about anything that she may have heard that will help our investigation.

 

“Mrs. Smith?” Rachel asks, stopping a couple of feet in front of the widow. The blond woman wipes at her eyes but does not look at her. “My name is Officer Rachel Berry and I am with the Naval Crime Scene Investigation Unit. I have a few questions for you about- “

 

“He forgot the pesto.” Mrs. Smith softly interrupts as she sniffles, looking up at her solemnly. “I was so pissed at him for forgetting that. How stupid was I?”

 

Not knowing what to say and a little thrown by the woman’s statement, Rachel looks down at her report’s notebook and asks her first question. “Mrs. Smith, can you recall how many gunshots you heard?”

 

“Do you know what the last thing I said to my husband, Office Berry?” Mrs. Smith asks woefully as her tears return. “I called him a bastard.”

 

Rachel stares at the widow sympathetically and put her hand on her shoulder.

 

She understands how Mrs. Smith is feeling all too well. She remembers one of the last conversations that she had with Brody towards the end of their relationship.  She had called him a no good bastard for abandoning their daughter in the same way that his own father had abandoned him when he failed to show up for Beth’s first family pictures. Rachel had felt like an idiot for standing in the studio alone trying to comfort their wailing six-month old daughter in her arms while she was trying to keep her own tears at bay. She remembers throwing his mother’s engagement ring back in his face when he came back to their apartment that night as she told him that the if she saw him anywhere near her or Beth again and how it would be the last thing he ever did.

 

“And now I can’t take it back.” Mrs. Smith finishes hollowly as the sobs begin to wrack her body.

 

Next thing Rachel knows; she is met with a face full of Mrs. Smith’s curly blond hair as the widow engulfs her into a hug. It shocks her at first because this has never happened to her on the job before, at least during her time with Mossad. But the shock wears away and she embraces the distraught woman in return.

 

Rachel can’t help but sympathize with the widow. At the time, when she had said what she did to Brody, all the former Mossad officer wanted to do was take it back. Because when all of her anger at Brody’s behavior began to subside, she remembered that at one point and time, that he was her best friend. He was one of the only people she could turn to during her time at Mossad and she didn’t want to lose that relationship. But by the time she tried to call him the next day to apologize, he had already disposed of the phone that she used to contact him in Mossad, making it clear that he didn’t need her or the organization.

 

Ever since everything that has happened with Brody, Quinn and NCIS, she often wonders if she hadn’t been so angry at the former agent would she have been able to stop him from becoming what he became? That maybe they could have gone to her father together and he could have explained how Brody got too into his deep cover operations and maybe there would have been something that the Director could have done for him?

 

Maybe if Rachel had done more to help him, he would have never met Quinn under the circumstances that he did. He would have never met Danielle and spent the last few months of his life obsessing over her. Danielle would still be alive and Agent Fabray would be happy and sleeping better than she is now.

She doesn’t regret breaking things off with Brody in the end, because they were on the road to ruin despite his betrayal. What she does regret is letting her judgements blind her to her objectivity. Maybe then, she would have been able to save a few lives if she had.

 

As she pats Mrs. Smith’s back comfortingly and softly tells her that it is going to be okay. She knows that this is a lie, that it won’t get better, especially not anytime soon. But it’s a lie that Mrs. Smith needs to believe in right now until they could catch her husband’s killer.

 

Puckerman’s camera clicks away as he takes a few pictures of the flipped over silver compact SUV, carefully making sure to stay as far away from the edge of the embankment as possible. He takes five more pictures before he lowers the DSLR to his stomach. The junior agent turns to his right, just in time to see probationary Agent Evans stumble into his shoulder as he is sketching the car in his reporter’s notebook.

 

Puck shakes his head at the probie. “If it makes you feel any better Evans, I once had my identity stolen.”

 

Sam flips the tiny notebook to the front cover and looks at Puck disbelievingly. He couldn’t imagine who would ever want to pretend the junior agent for anything. “Really?”

 

“Yeah.” Puck replies nonchalantly, raising the camera up to his eyes again and steps over to the side to take some more pictures of the car. “I had a charge for a Barbie with a Career girl outfit.”

 

“Was it the one with the matching briefcase and pumps?” Sam asks eagerly.

 

Puck lowers his camera turns around to face his probie. He looks at Evans disbelievingly, unsure of whether or not he heard the other agent right.

 

Sam looks down as his cheeks become rosy and avoids looking directly at the junior agent.

 

“I- uh had a girlfriend who was into collecting Barbies and she used to line them up and-”

 

Puck shakes his head at the probie. “You lost whatever respect I may have had for you at pumps. Now get back to work probie.”

 

Deeming it safe to look forward, Sam leans down and places his notebook on his leg and squints at the vehicle. “It’s kind of hard to see what I need from the sketch at this angle.”

 

“Don’t get any closer Evans.” Puck warns. “The further you go, the deeper this baby gets. One false move and it’s-”

 

As he says this, Mike Chang comes tumbling down the embankment behind them, with Lopez trailing behind him with her arms crossed disinterestedly and shaking her head as his kit falls out of his .

 

“Great hustle there Chang!” Puck congratulates with a clap as the assistant medical examiner finally comes to a stop, with his back hitting a nearby tree.

 

Rachel strides purposefully up to the senior agent, who was currently bending over the broken railing and jotting down notes on it.

 

 “There are no skid marks and it looks like he didn’t try to stop the car before it went over.” Rachel informs the senior agent as she stops in front of her.

 

The senior agent continues to jot down her notes, as if she hadn’t heard Rachel speaking at all. Rachel continues on undeterred by her boss’ aloofness.

 

“They were having an argument about anniversaries. I understand the meaning and significance of a one-year anniversary for a relationship, but I was never quite sold on the idea of a six-month anniversary. Any relationship milestone I guess is worth celebrating but a six-month anniversary, even for me, seems a little soon to celebrate the longevity-”

 

“I never understood anniversaries to begin with.” Quinn interrupts with an annoyed grunt as she pressing her pen down on the notebook hard than she intended to. Dani was one of those people who had an anniversary for everyone that she met that meant anything to her. She never made a big deal about it and would get someone a small trinket when their anniversary came up. The only anniversary Dani makes a big deal about is the day that the two of them met. Quinn could completely forget about a birthday or their wedding anniversary and make it up to Dani the next week with a date night or letting the team have a three-day weekend so that she can take her camping with Jethro. But the one anniversary that her wife would never let her forget was the anniversary of their first meeting. Dani would never forgive her if she missed that.

 

Quinn quietly chastises herself for doing it again. She shakes her head and concentrates on finishing up her notes on the crime scene.

 

“Yeah well, her husband must have held your beliefs on anniversaries.” Rachel says challengingly, looking down at the senior agent crossed. The senior agent not liking anniversaries didn’t surprise her in the least. For a moment, the Mossad officer felt like she was going to have one last screaming match with Brody about forgetting their anniversary. She bitterly wonders how many anniversaries the senior agent must have missed due to “work”? How many anniversaries had her wife had to sit back and enjoy alone while Quinn callously apologized and promised to make it up to her?

 

This was not something that she should be thinking about here, especially after her conversation with Wendy Smith. “She was screaming at him because he forgot their six-month anniversary before she heard a loud gunshot.”

 

Quinn looks away from her notebook and stands up suddenly, noticeably perking up with interest. “What else did she tell you?”

 

Rachel lowers her arms to her side. “She said that she heard a low moan for a few minutes after the impact.”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Dr. Chang hisses as he rotates his ankle around. He then leans forward and feels the bone in his ankle to confirm what he’d already suspected; that he had sprained his ankle in his fall.

 

The medical examiner’s assistant looks over to the three other agents worriedly. “Do you think Dr. Corcoran will be upset about the sprain?”

 

She had warned him about his Oxfords not working for the crime scene and he told her that he wasn’t going to fall down the embankment and that he was an expert hiker. He had even used the three weeks he had spent in the Boy Scouts at his mother’s request to reassure her that he knew what he was doing.

 

Now he’s stuck at a crime scene with a sprained ankle.

 

“Do you think Dr. Corcoran will be pissed when she finds out I sprained my ankle? Will she fire me for violating her dress code and falling on the job?” Chang asks, his voice rising an octave as he speaks.

 

“Of course she won’t Chang. You’re her favorite assistant” Puck says comfortingly as he pats the assistant medical examiner on his right shoulder. “Worst case scenario is that she’ll rail on you for a couple of minutes though. But she’’ patch you up and send you on your way with a script of R and R.”

 

Dr. Chang smiles in relief with the knowledge that his boss wouldn’t be too cross with him. He had only been on the job for a couple of months and the last thing he needed right now was to give Shelby a reason to think that he does not belong here at NCIS.

 

Just as soon as it appeared, his moment of comfort evaporates when he feels two hands claw into his shoulder.

 

“Dr. Corcoran may let you slide.” Santana whispers into his ear menacingly. “But when Agent Fabray finds out you wore loafers to her crime scene Chang, they won’t find whatever’s left of your body by the time she’s done with it.”

 

Santana hits him on the back hard as Dr. Chang takes a big gulp and stares frighteningly into the distance. He looks up to Sam and Puckerman for any sort of sign that the junior agent was just pulling his leg and that Agent Fabray wouldn’t really kill him for wearing the wrong shoes.

 

Puck just shrugs his shoulders at him while Sam looks on at him with pity as he extends his hand out for the assistant to take.

 

As he struggles to stand up on his bum foot, Dr. Chang silently wonders if it was too early for him to resign without Agent Fabray finding out about any of this?

 

Dr. Corcoran squeezes through the last of what seems like ten miles of bushes before she reaches the petty officer’s vehicle. One of the branches from the last group of bushes flings into her face and she swishes it away. She shakes her head with her long ponytail following in the direction that she was shaking in, to get the debris out of her hair.

 

She walks over to the overturned SUV and immediately squats down to face the dead petty officer. His eyes were closed and his head leaned forward a bit onto the steering wheel. The young officer had a bit of a five o’clock shadow. Shelby looks at him with downcast eyes, thinking about how sad it always is when a young officer gets cut down in his prime. Especially when it was a young newlywed, whose life with his wife had barely begun before this.

 

She squats down and gets as close as the angle she is squatting in will allow her to get to the petty officer, making sure that her words were for him and him alone. “I’m sorry you’ve been down here as long as you have hun. We’re having a bit more trouble than usual with the help around here but you’ve got nothing to worry about.”

 

There’s a part of her that wishes that she could at least move the little brown cow lick from his face, as if it may have been bothering him. But she doubts he would even notice it considering his current state.

 

“I can assure you that we’ll have you out of there and on my table in no time.” Shelby tells the corpse comfortingly. “You’ll be much more comfortable on my slab than you are in your current position in that car.”

 

Shelby reluctantly stands up and starts examining the crime scene. The glass of the driver’s side had shattered during the crash. Luckily, she had seen the gaping bullet hole that ran through and through his neck along with the dry trail of blood that ran down to his shirt. She maneuvers around the car to the passenger side window to see if the bullet may have gone through there, but the only thing that was there was the crack from the impact.

 

The medical examiner stands tall and moves a stray wisp of her hair out of her face. She puts her hands on her hips and looks up at the hill, where three agents and her assistant, were all staring down at her. As if they were incapable of coming down here and helping her with her assessment of the car. Shelby then walks back around to the petty officer’s side of the car and waits for any assistance from the other agents.

 

“Is anyone going to join me down here?” Shelby shouts in annoyance with her mezzo soprano tone filling the silence of the embankment.

 

The three agents look at each other for a moment and make a show of taking a couple of steps backward on the hill.

 

Lopez and Puckerman stood with their arms crossed and lightly shaking their heads. They loved Shelby and would murder for the medical examiner if they needed to. But at the same time, Puckerman was fond of having all of his neck intact and not broken. While Santana, who was wearing a new pair of leather boots, just did not want anything to happen to her custom made. They were the ones she has wanted to buy for the longest time, but she didn’t need them. So she has held off them for the last few months. At least until Puckerman hurling in her shoes gave her a reason to buy a new pair.

 

She’ll be damned if she climbs down that hill, only for the leather to get scuffed and it ruin her boots.

Unfortunately for Shelby, she would be on her own for this.

 

Sam puts his hands in the air in surrender.  “Sorry Shelby, but Fabray told us not to get too close.”

 

“Yeah Shells. Probie’s right.” Puck agrees readily. “You shouldn’t even be down there. It’s dangerous.”

 

Shelby rolls her eyes at the junior agents’ cowardice and gets down on the ground of the embankment. She crawls a bit to the driver’s side window and reaches out to touch the petty officer’s neck.

 

“The exit wound through the petty officer’s neck seems to suggest that the bullet went straight through.” Shelby shouts at them. “There could be a spent round lying around here that we may need for the investigation.”

 

The three agents on the hill look at each other exasperatedly. Santana pushes Puck forward.

 

“I think Agent Puckerman should be the one to assist you.” Santana shouts in reply. “He is the senior most agent here besides Agent Fabray and the boss would appreciate it.”

The mohawk-wearing agent steps back into his place and pushes Santana’s arm off of him. “As much as I would love to help ya doc, I think Lopez should be the one in the trenches with you, in the spirit of womanhood. You ladies have to take care of each other and all that.”

 

“You sexist asshole!” Santana hisses turning to face the junior agent, punching him in the process. She makes sure that the good doctor couldn’t hear their conversation. “What the hell does that have to do with anything?”

 

“Nothing at all.” Puck whispers back. “I just don’t want to lug my ass down there.”

 

The junior agent then looks over at the silent probie, who was staring down at Shelby with his arms crossed. Santana and Puck stare at each other again in silent agreement before she turns away from Puck and back to the medical examiner.

 

“As much as we would like to be down there with you, I think Sam should be the one to help you with this one.” Santana yells cunningly, causing the probie in question to turn to her in shock.

 

“What?” Sam shouts flabbergasted. “But Fabray specifically told me to stay up here! As you both like to point out to me over and over again, I’m nothing more than a junior agent!”

 

“All the more reason you need the experience probie!” Puckerman says in agreement. “I’m sure Fabray would appreciate the fact that you took this character building opportunity.”

 

“Yeah probie!” Santana agrees with a satisfied smirk. “This would be a great opportunity for you to move up from junior junior junior probationary agent to junior junior probationary agent. You’ll be two steps ahead of Berry!”

 

“Why don’t you two **junior agents** lead the way then?” Sam says as he starts to make his way down the hill.

 

Santana’s pleasant smile morphs into a frown in a flash. “Why don’t you kiss my experienced ass probie-”

 

“Am I going to have to summon Quinn for this or what?” Shelby asks unamused as the three agents reluctantly making their way down the hill.

 

“Nope.” Puck answers, knowing that tone of voice anywhere. “We’re all good here doc.”

 

“It’s not like we’re going to find anything anyway.” Santana grumbles as she finds herself stepping forward into Puckerman. “The chances of us finding that damn bullet are-”

                                                                                                                                                                                                           

* * *

 

 

**12 pm**

**NCIS Forensics Laboratory**

 

“One in a million.” Tina announces as she moves away from the microscope. Quinn then steps forward and looks into the ocular lens. She turns the fine focus nob to bring the bullet into focus and examines the straight lines with a few grooves near the tip of the bullet that the senior agent sees that it faintly looks like a skull.

 

“The grooves that made this pattern is the exact design of Classic Death’s second CD.” The goth exclaims, clapping her gloved hands together. “I can’t believe you don’t know that they were my lifeblood in high school. I thought I told you that the one time you-“

 

Quinn lifts her head up for a moment when she feels a throbbing in her head return from this morning. She was alright and hadn’t felt anything while they were out on the crime scene. But since they’re return back to the yard, she has been feeling the pains in her head return again.

 

Normally, the senior agent would love to humor Tina with their usual banter. But today, all she wanted to do is get at least the basic facts of this case settled before she heads home for the night.

 

“Not now Tina.” Quinn warns. She turns back to the microscope and leans back down to look into the lens.

 

 Tina looks at Quinn quizzically for a moment, not seeing anything quite out of the ordinary with the agent so far. The senior agent did look more tired than she usually was. Then again, Quinn was always the insomniac for as long as the forensic scientist had known her. Maybe the blond just needed a little more than her usual cup of coffee.

 

So the forensic scientist decided to keep the conversation going in an attempt to try and perk the senior agent up.

 

“But Quinn, it could be a sign.” Tina exaggerates. “Like that tortilla skillet that people believed to be a miracle for the longest time.”

 

Quinn rolls her eyes and lifts her head up away from the microscope.

 

“It’ll be a miracle if you keep your job if you don’t get back on topic.” Quinn snaps as she steps away from the forensic scientist and walks over to the other side of the room.

 

Tina looks at the retreating senior agent and is now convinced that there was something bothering the senior agent. Quinn never snapped at her, even when she was frustrated or angry at someone else. The goth scientist had always been immune to the senior agent’s temper.

 

“You have a point there, oh Great One.” Tina says confused.

 

She was concerned, but in the interest of not inciting anymore of the senior agent’s anger, the goth closes her eyes and inhales for a moment and exhales.

 

“This is me getting back on topic.” Tina murmurs to herself. The pigtailed goth opens her eyes and struts to one of the monitors on the walls. “Okay. The bullet is a nine mil, one hundred and twenty grain. The window was rolled up when the Petty Officer was shot.”

 

“The glass?” the senior agent asks as she crosses her arms.

 

“There were traces of it in the rifling.”

 

“What about the bullet’s manufacturer?” Quinn inquires, not taking her eyes off of the monitor.

 

“Can’t tell.” Tina answers. “I’m going to have to plug this into the FBI’s Drugfire database and see if I can get a hit, but-” The scientist turns towards the blond agent and eyes her cautiously.

 

“It’s going to take time.” Quinn huffs as her arms fall to her side.

 

“See?” Tina points between the two of them. “Mindreading. There must be some supernatural mojo going on between the two of us.”

 

The senior agent stomps away from the scientist and makes her way for the door. This was definitely not the day for her to mess with Tina and vice versa. In fact, she wasn’t even planning on getting the goth’s customary Cat-Po because of how irritated she was with the other woman.

 

Was everyone on her team a bunch of comedians? Is there no one there who can give her a straight answer without resorting to all of the irritating shtick that comes with it?

 

She needed to get out of here before she says something that she might regret to one of the few people left in her life that she doesn’t want to hurt.

 

“Call me when you have something Tina!” Quinn shouts as she leaves the lab.

 

Tina goes back to the microscope with the bullet on it and continues her examination. She leans into the ocular lens and messes with the focus. “Hey Quinn, I bet we could sell this on Ebay and get a ton for it. Did you know that they sold that grilled cheese picture of Jesus in Lima, Ohio for twenty-eight grand?”

 

When she hears no response back, Tina looks away from the microscope and looks all over the lab. The boss was nowhere to be found.

 

Sometimes, the goth scientist was convinced that Quinn was some sort of ghost not so secretly haunting the naval yard. It would explain how she gets in and out of here so fast.

 

* * *

 

 

**1:30 pm**

**The Bullpen**

“Preliminary trajectory shows that the bullet went straight through the driver side window.” Sam tells Agents Puckerman, Berry and Lopez as they all took diligent notes in their respective notebooks. Santana sat comfortably on Agent Evans’ desk while Rachel and Puck stood side by side, with Puck situating himself closer to Rachel than what was normal for him.

 

A lined, CGI image of Jerry Smith appears on the screen as Sam navigates the bullet trajectory with his laser pointer. The light of the laser begins through the driver’s side window and goes all the way through the petty officer’s neck and into the door, where the exit for the bullet is projected to be.

 

The probationary agent uses the remote and moves the image on to the wooded area of route 249, where the embankment is. “So I recommend we canvas the area for any spent brass.”

 

Santana nods in agreement with the probie’s assessment. Now that the forensics team were able to clear the area of the SUV containing the Petty Officer’s body, they could go back there and find the brass that their perp may have dropped.

 

Rachel bites her lip for a moment and slightly nods in disagreement. “You’re not going to find it Agent Evans. Nine millimeter rounds are slow and are only accurate to about thirty meters. The shooter was in a moving car driving alongside the Petty Officer.”

 

Speaking from first-hand experience, Rachel wanted to say. They would be lucky if the bullet wasn’t trapped under someone’s car tire somewhere. But she wasn’t going to tell the other agents that she may have participated in a drive by before. That was another can of worms for another time and maybe a few flutes of champagne.

 

Santana’s face turns in the direction of the new probationary agent and scowls. Ms. Know-it-all always has to add her two cents in. She looks over to Puck, who was shaking his head in agreement with her like the hound that he is and turns away.

 

Santana steps up and moves in Rachel’s direction. “That’s a nice little theory there Mossad girl Barbie, but you’re forgetting one thing. We are **_i-n-v-e-s-t-i-g-a-t-o-r-s_**. We investigate and try to restrain ourselves from making baseless suppositions about a crime scene without looking into it first. Got it? Good.”

 

“Rachel’s right.” Quinn informs the rest of the team, as she stands in between Puck and Rachel and leans more toward the Mossad Officer.  The four agents all turn around and look with various expressions on their faces. Santana and Sam have their mouths open in an o, in a state of shock and surprise at the senior agent’s sudden appearance.

 

Quinn had heard every word of their conversation and with the mood she was in, she was sick to death of it. Rachel is trying her hardest to make the best of a bad situation and she was well aware of it. She was obviously shocked that Rachel knew more about this job than she had initially anticipated she would. The senior agent may have to be hard on her like she was on every other person who had been on their team, but she notices that the Mossad officer was steadily improving. She was getting sick to death of Lopez’s barbs and acting as if she were the lead agent.

 

She certainly wasn’t going to deal with it on a day where she’s only had three to four hours of sleep.

 

 Puck turns and looks at Rachel with a proud and loving look in his eyes. Quinn rarely, if ever, tells any of them when they’ve done something right, especially if they are a probie. For her to get that kind of praise from the boss is incredible and hardly heard of. He found himself proud of his girl and weirded out at the fluttering going on in his stomach.

 

Rachel turns and smiles brightly at the senior agent, missing Puck’s look completely, and silently thanking her for backing her up for once.

 

Quinn moves away from the agents and makes her way to her desk. “The wife said she heard a gunshot over the phone. So the shooter had to be close by.”

 

“Thank you.” Rachel says humbly, much to Santana’s annoyance, feeling a faint blush of red come to her cheeks.

 

Quinn brushes off the new probationary agent’s gratitude to stop the impending protest that Agent Lopez may have and continues on with the debriefing. “What do we know about the victim?”

 

Sam turns until he finds himself facing the front of the boss’ desk. “I ran his military ID and it says that he was a clerk at Norfolk who had four months left before his discharge,”

 

Quinn starts typing on her computer. “Puckerman, Lopez, take Rachel with you to check in with his C.O. And when you’re done, you three can sweep out the trajectory for brass.”

 

Rachel’s smile drops and she turns in the direction of Quinn’s desk and looks at her inquisitively.

 

“But why? We’re not going to find anything.”

Quinn looks away from the computer and in Rachel’s direction. “Because Lopez is right too.”

 

Santana walks away from a smug smirk, mouthing ‘ha’ in Rachel’s face as she departs to her desk. Puck looks at her sympathetically, before going to his own desk and scowling in Lopez’s direction. He loved the girl like a sister, but even he knew that the other junior agent had a tendency to go too far. He could handle it with no problems and give it to Lopez as well as she gave it to everyone else. But Rachel was obviously not built like he and Lopez were. She took things personally instead of Santana just being Santana.

 

 He’d have to have a talk with her when they went out tonight, if they were still going out tonight. Though he’s not sure if they were going to be able to if the boss’ mood and this case were any indication of that.

 

 

* * *

 

 

**2:30pm**

**Norfolk Military base**

Agents Puckerman and Lopez walk into the office building side by side with Officer Berry trailing behind them as an unnamed lankly looking blond officer with a boyish face escort them through the office. Rachel looks around and sees the many women and men working in the building in their military uniforms. But what was surprisingly absent was the fact that none of them were armed with any weaponry.

 

“Everyone in this office is in the military?” Rachel remarks unsure.

“Uh, yeah Rach they are.” Puck answers kindly as Santana grunts and walks a bit further away from her partner.

 

“The uniforms are a dead giveaway genius.” Santana grumbles under her breath.

 

“Then why aren’t they armed?” the Mossad officer wonders, still amazed at how little protection someone would need in an American military office. Rachel was always armed no matter where she went in Mossad. It would be dangerous and stupid for her to not have at least a small handgun on her at all times.

 

“Because this is America Berry.”  Santana says snidely turning back to the officer and glaring at her. “The machine guns would just get in the way.”

 

Rachel stares back and Santana, glaring at the junior agent just as hard as she was glaring at her. The Mossad officer was still getting used to how things worked in America and she was only asking an innocent question. What did she ever do to this agent to make the other woman resent her as much as she seems to, Rachel will never know.

 

They stop their showdown when they reach the desk of a senior officer. Puckerman steps in between them, silently taking the point on the conversation that they were about to have with Smith’s CEO. The slightly balding man in his mid-forties, Commander Robert Morris, hangs up the phone and stands up to greet the agents with a smile and a handshake for Puckerman.

 

“Commander Morris.” Puck reaches out and shakes the officer’s hand.

 

“What can I do for the agents of NCIS today?” the commander inquires good-naturedly.

 

Puck’s face becomes serious and he places his hand behind his back. “I’m so sorry to have to tell you this sir, but one of your men was killed this morning.”

 

The Commander’s smile drops from his face and he looks on at the agents stunned. “Oh my god, who was it?”

 

“Petty Officer Jerry Smith.” Rachel steps in next.

 

Commander Morris looks at the three agents quizzically and before he has a chance to say anything, Agent Lopez jumps in. “He was shot on Route 249 this morning on his way into work.”

 

The Commander’s face becomes stern. “I think you have the wrong man. You might have him confused with someone else.”

 

The three agents look at each other quizzically.

 

Commander Morris points his finger directly outside the door. “That’s Petty Officer Jerry Smith.”

 

The three agents turn on their heels immediately and see that Petty Officer Smith is the goofy soldier in the bull uniform who served as their tour guide earlier. And he looked very much alive and well as he was glancing down at something on the computer.

 

The one thought running through all three agent’s heads is the same.

 

What the hell is going on here and who is the guy on the slab?

 

 

* * *

 

 

**A/N:**

**Hello readers!**

**Once again, I’d like to apologize for the lack of updates for the last year and a half. Between work, school and honestly a lack of motivation, I haven’t touched this story in a year. It wasn’t until I read the drafts that I had been working on before I stopped and how much I missed working on this story inspired me to continue along with it. This chapter might be a little rusty because I’m still trying to get into the groove and characters of it, but I will try to update this story more often than I did before I left it, now that the load that was on my shoulders before has lessen somewhat.**

**As always, reviews and criticisms are greatly appreciated and I hope you all enjoyed this update.**

**Sincerely,**

**The Geek in Pink**

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So guys. I updated this in fanfic.net and I thought I had updated this story here as well. Well here's Chapter eighteen for you guys and I will have the next installment ready very soon.
> 
> Hope you enjoy this chapter, had a lot of fun writing it.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> The Geek in Pink


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